Winter Winds
by Neoringo
Summary: *Chapter 20 up!*( Uh...I don't know a good summary right now) Picard and Jan are off on another adventure to the world of ghosts to find their beloved jupiter adepts!
1. Tolbi Rescue

Winter Winds   
By ChibiDjinn  
  
A/N: Wowsers another Ivan/Sheba fic?! oh well, another wonderful idea popped into my nut sized brain and it shall bloom! ha ha bloom! Okay....   
  
  
Disclaimers: I DO NOT OWN GOLDEN SUN!  
  
  
*Flame me all you want, it doesn't make a difference. =P  
*I don't like the name "Piers". He will be called Picard in this story  
  
  
  
  
*Ahem* I won't be making as many appearances as in my other story, I'll pop up and scare you once in a while....   
  
  
  
Chapter 1: Tolbi Rescue   
  
The young Adept looked on. He sensed only one thing in the air and the land. War and blood. War was near, war was coming and nothing could get in its way. The Jupiter adept, who happened to be Ivan stumbled upon the large town of Tolbi. Guards were everywhere in order to project the entire gambling town from their enemy, the laliverians of Lalivero. It was so heavily guarded that no one was able to leave or enter town without the special permission from King Babi, who was rumored to be ressurected when the lighthouses were all lit. Ivan was skilled at sneaking into places such as these. For many months, he went to train and increase his psynergy power with his sister, Master Hama.   
  
As of now, his hard training paid off. With the use of the cloak ball, agility and careful planning, he entered surreptitiously, without disturbing the guards. A nearby home had a ladder strapped onto the side. Ivan hastily went up and jumped onto another roof. He continued the process and reached the castle in the upper part of town. He scanned the area with the help of another useful tactic, reveal. The beam lit and made it conspicuously possible for the human eye. Then he scanned the building with eyes as dark as night and a mid gleam of the wind itself. He looked deeper into the castle. His mind was satisfied about his future move. From the remaining building he was on, he threw a rope silently using his psynergy to guide and fully fasten the rope to the other side. The moment he fasten the rope, he was already at his destination. Slowly he peered and crawled on the balcony surface. Ivan slowly opened the door to find Lalivero's savior sleeping soundly. He sidled over and took a look at the sleeping girl.   
  
He shook her gently.   
"Hey." Ivan whispered into her ear. Her eyes shot opened as she gasped. Ivan quickly covered her mouth and grasped her arm gently.   
"Shhh..don't speak so loud." Ivan mind read her.   
"Who are you........you..you can read minds.." Sheba replied back, "are you a Jupiter adept?"   
"Precisely. I'm Ivan. I was the one fighting with you guys against the doom dragon at the Jupiter Lighthouse remember?" Ivan mentally said back.   
"Well, sort of, but what are you doing in a place like this? Are you goi..." Sheba was cut off.   
"Yes, I'm taking you back home to Lalivero, they really need you back."   
"I must leave straight away then!" Sheba said as she quietly got her stuff together. "I'm ready."   
Sheba grabbed her staff and then followed Ivan's exact commands. They've reached the exit. A guard noticed the two even if they were cloaked and quiet.   
"Hey you, halt!" The guard yelled. Other guards began to come in large amounts of numbers.   
  
"How did they." Ivan mumbled.   
"Find out." Sheba finished the sentence.   
  
"GET THEM!!" The commander barked an order. "They have the hostage!"   
  
The troops raced after the Jupiter adepts, even if the teens where too fast for them.   
"Ivan!" Sheba ran as fast as her feet could carry her, "There behind us and I'm growing tired from running."   
"I know." Ivan took out his Shaman's Rod, "The only way of getting them is by fighting. Can you handle that?"   
"I sure can." Sheba nodded.   
  
A drop of rain fell onto Ivan's cheek.   
"Rain." Ivan stopped and waited for the guards to catch up, "just the perfect elemental boost."   
"There they are." Sheba saw torches of lanterns from 50 ft away.   
  
The drop of rain began to fall at a pouring rate. The night sky was darker. Ivan eyed the flashes of lightning nearby. "Just as I expected."   
  
"There they are!" The voices of the troops began to grow louder,   
"Good luck." Ivan positioned himself in offense mode,   
"Spark Plasma!" Ivan felt his wind element power rising. Barrages of bolts fell and struck the troops hard. Sheba began attacking by using Tempest to blast away the troops with strong gales.   
"Come on, we have enough time to get away." Sheba grabbed his arm, "there's a hidden cavern we can take shelter in."   
"I'm sure Tolbi's troops lost our trail, especially in this type of weather." Ivan slipped inside the small crevice of the cavern.   
Sheba began to shiver. "It's very cold. I need dry clothes."   
"Don't worry, I have supplies." Ivan looked into his bag and took out a warm blanket. "Here, better?" He said in a sweet tone.   
"Yes thank you. Sheba gladly took the blanket and wrapped it around her. Ivan began to feel the coldness of his drenched trench coat. He took it off and placed it on the smooth stone floor of the cavern.   
"You deserve some warmth too you know." Sheba wrapped the rest of the unused part of the blanket, "it will capture and save more heat."   
"It's better than nothing." Ivan blushed as Sheba began to cuddle close to Ivan.   
"I'm going to sleep okay?" Sheba leaned slightly on his shoulder. "It's been a long night."   
"All right, good night." Ivan slowly began to fall asleep. He suddenly was awaken again by the voice of Sheba.   
"Ivan?" Sheba called out.   
"um...yes?" Ivan called back.   
What if they find us here?" Sheba sat up, watching and hearing the sounds of the wind and rain.   
"They won't find us, besides I want to take you home safely." Ivan mumbled.   
"But why?"   
Ivan blushed, "well I uh..actually it was Faran's orders, being the closest adept to Lalivero, he told me to come and rescue you.   
"I think I truly know why." Sheba let out a small giggle. "Well that's all, I won't bother you with stupid questions.   
"No I don't mind, I just need some sleep. Ivan went back to slumber. 


	2. Early Morning Travel

Chapter 2: Early Morning Travels   
  
The morning dew sparkled off the blades of grass as the dawn hit the continent. The sun shined partly over the landscape. Dim light mixed with shadows were the only thing lighting the cavern, right now. Ivan was already up. He had to make sure he didn't leave any kind of evidence behind or the chance of the Tolbi forces finding him will highly increase. It wasn't a very hard task. All he had to do was blow away the previous packs of dirt he had stepped on. Sheba was still sleeping. She wasn't a morning person at all. Ivan had to wake her up. It was already late and there was a good chance that Tolbi was already out and searching the area.   
"Hey wake up, we have to get moving, Ivan said politely, shaking her slowly in the arm.   
  
Sheba slowly opened her sleeping eyes. The sun shined on them, making her lavender eyes to look luminous. She quickly closed them to avoid the brightness of the sun.   
"We're hitting the road already?" Sheba sighed, "it's....so..early."   
"I know it is, but we're are both on Tolbi's most wanted list, so we have to move out quickly or they'll find us." Ivan began packing everything up.   
"Let's go then." Sheba slowly and clumsily stumbled outside the cool winter morning.   
Ivan began to use whirlwind all over the rocks and dirt. Sheba gave him a skeptical look.   
"What are you doing?"   
"Just covering our tracks. Who knows what will pick up our scent, especially Tolbi's tracking dogs." Ivan finished and picked up his bag.   
"That's a clever way of doing that." Sheba watched the dust settle into the ground again.   
"We must be about northeast towards Tolbi. "I doubt we can get through the Suhalla pass. It's blocked off by all the fights in that area. We have to take a detour around the pass."   
"So it will take longer to get to Lalivero?" Sheba scanned the horizon.   
"Maybe off by 3 or for days." Ivan began walking towards the Suhalla desert," let's go."   
  
Throughout the morning they walked, encountered monsters and taking short breaks. The day wasn't very hot. The winter season cooled down the warm scorched parts of the southern lands.   
"Shouldn't we be at the desert by now, or did you go the wrong direction?" Sheba looked up to the tall mountains up ahead.   
" No im positive this is the right way. The desert is supposed to be right were those mountains are!" Ivan declared, " those mountains were not there before....where did they come from?"   
" Maybe we can find out by climbing over it, it must lead to the same place." Sheba guessed.   
  
They walked on, getting the usual routine as any warrior would get in the outside world. Slowly by the hours, the mountains were getting closer and closer.   
  
"Were almost there." Ivan looked up at the white covered tops of the mountain range.   
" Just about." Sheba scanned the distance of the mountains, " it will take nearly the rest of the day to reach. It also looks like it's going to be cold up there.   
"We could go pick up snow supplies at the next town." Ivan suggested.   
"There isn't even any towns around stupid," Sheba spoke up and kicked a little stone for amusement.   
"I knew that." Ivan muttered to himself. "It must be that time of the moon cycle again."   
"I heard that!!" Sheba snapped and yanked his neck with her rod.   
"What's you problem!?" Ivan scolded at her, "it's not my fault you are so angry today.   
Sheba unwrapped her staff's head from Ivan's neck, "well it's been a while since I walked far distances and you woke me up too early!" Sheba folded her arms and glared at Ivan.   
"Oh so it's because of your lack of beauty sleep?" Ivan chuckled, "no wonder you're so angry."   
"I'm getting tired again." Sheba slowly walked behind. "Can we rest?"   
"Hmm.....our last rest was 3 hours ago, I guess we can." Ivan stopped and rested his back against a tree.   
"Finally!" Sheba laid in the grass with full relief.   
Ivan searched his bag for a purple case. He brought it out and opened it. It was a flute with a sleek light gold design. There was a few symbols which represented the Jupiter clan. He began playing the flute. Sheba's ears perked up to listen to the beautifully played sound of the flute.   
"I never knew you could play such a tune." Sheba looked up at him.   
"I've been playing for awhile on my spare time." Ivan quietly said and continued playing.   
" I see, must be a hobby of yours." Sheba drank out of her water canteen. She started into the horizon. Another storm was forming.   
"Great." Sheba sighed, "did you summon another storm again?"   
"You talk too much." Ivan looked up at her, "what storm?" I didn't summon anything." He looked at his flute, " maybe my flute playing done it."   
"Interesting, a flute that can summon storms." Sheba grabbed the flute and examined it. "Now we have to go find shelter pretty soon."   
"You really like to complain don't you?" Ivan grabbed his flute back and placed it into its case," you must have driven Felix berserk."   
"Sheba picked up her things, "well sorry! I'm just eager to get home. Babi really got on my nerves back there."   
"We got enough rest, better find shelter while we can." Ivan grabbed his stuff, "but first we have to head up the mountain."   
"All right then....onto the road again." Sheba kept an eye out for any kind of shelter.   
  
Another three hours passed by. The mountain was near. Ivan began scanning the tall snow covered mountain. A small shop with a few large stables was nearby.   
"Ivan!" Sheba ran straight to the small log cabin. "Over here!"   
Ivan ran towards her and went inside the warm cozy shop. 


	3. Shop and Inn Gryphon

Chapter 3: Shop and Inn Gryphon   
  
  
*Robin was Isaac's real name in the Japanese version, just letting you know.   
  
  
"Oh hello, welcome to my shop and home." A man about age 25 greeted them.   
"We're looking for snow clothes, do you have any?" Sheba asked the man.   
"Yes we do, what type are you looking for?"   
"Do you have any feather robes available?" Ivan asked while looking around in the shop.   
"Those are very common around here." The man replied, "in fact I raise gryphons who are able to shed the feathers needed to make the robes."   
He continued. "Feather robes are rare everywhere else but here. I'll sell them to you for a fair price of 7,000 coins each."   
Ivan slid a leather pouch of money over the counter, "We'll take two."   
"Thank you for your purchase." He said in reply. "It's going to be a cold one tonight and I would advise you to climb the mountain tomorrow. I have extra rooms for weary travelers such as yourself."   
"I take your word." Ivan nodded as the man lead them to a small cozy room. Two beds, a desk and with a few things scattered on the wall as decorations.   
"Here's our overnight pay. Sheba handed the man 60 coins. He refused, but Sheba convinced him to take the money.   
He left the room and began cooking something.   
" I wonder what the shop keeper is cooking. " The aurora of food filled Ivan's nose. "I haven't eaten all day."   
"Smells good, I'm going to see what he's up to." Sheba walked out of the room to follow the smell of food from the kitchen.   
"What are you cooking? It smells really good!" Sheba walked into the kitchen, "by the way, I never got your name."   
"Oh I'm sorry for not introducing myself." He apologized. "The names Robin."   
"Nice to meet you Robin." Sheba greeted him." I'm Sheba and my escorter is Ivan."   
"An escorter? Robin questioned," are you the one that has recently been reported missing hostage?"   
"I guess you can say that, yes." Sheba watched Robin prepare dinner," I just woke up and followed Ivan out of that horrible place. I'm glad I got out of there, Lalivero will perish if they don't have me there. They need me."   
"Fascinating, then Tolbi must be on the lookout. You're safe here. I highly doubt it there search here in the mountains. I never liked Babi anyway, all his life he's been a greedy bastard."   
"I agree with you there!" Sheba then asked politely, "when is dinner going to be finished?"   
"In five minutes so go ahead and call your friend over here."   
"All right." Sheba walked out and went to her room. Ivan was looking out the window at all the gryphon stables. He was very interested in the beauty of the wind elemental creature.   
"Robin says dinner will be done soon, I know you're hungry." Sheba placed her hand on his shoulder which startled Ivan.   
"Robin? So that's his name.. that's good dinner will be finished soon. I haven't eaten any decent all day."   
"Hey you two it's done!" Robin peered in. " Get it before it gets cold!"   
"Food!" Ivan ravenously took a bite out of a chicken drumstick. Then he stopped, "I'm sorry, where are my manners."   
"No, don't worry about that, as long as it's good enough for you. Robin told him. Ivan continued.   
"So what kind of gryphons are those?" Sheba asked.   
" I domesticated them. After I found abandoned nests nearby my shop some time ago. They are the mountain gryphons. They have very warm feathers, which can be used for coats. Since they shed their winter feathers in the spring, it gives me the opportunity to gather them and make coats out of them. They give me great company and love. The gryphons here are basically my family."   
"That's pretty cool." Ivan took another large bite out of his third drumstick. "May we go see the gryphons?"   
"Yes, but you have to promise to help me clean up after dinner." Robin replied.   
"Of course!" Ivan nodded and finished his dinner.   
"That was fast." Sheba commented.   
"I was thinking you were hungry." Robin chuckled.   
"I'm not much of a heavy eater, even when I am hungry." Ivan got up and washed his plate in the sink. "That was pretty good chicken!" Ivan licked his fingers, " how did you cook it so well?"   
Robin finished his dinner, " it's a family secret."   
"I'm just about full for tonight." Sheba wiped her fingers with a napkin. She then went up to Robin to collect the used dishes." I'll help you with that."   
"I'll wash them!" Ivan volunteered and began scrubbing the dishes clean. Robin helped by cleaning the rest of the table.   
"Thank you for your help, as promised I'll show you my gryphons." Robin lead them them through the backdoor and into the stable.   
  
Another cliffhanger! Next chapter will be up in around 1-2 days depending on my mood and my homework....I still have a lot more writing on my paper so all I have to do is copy. 


	4. Gryphon Stables

Chapter 4: Gryphon Stables   
  
  
  
Inside the stable was a little cold. It wasn't dark and the gryphons didn't seem to mind. They looked up to notice the two strangers along with their owner coming inside.   
"It's cold in here." Sheba shivered, " the gryphons don't seem to feel it at all."   
"Yeah, if I heated this place up to suit a human's needs, the gryphons would fry." Robin petted one of his gryphons. It cooed in reply.   
"These gryphons are pretty friendly, especially when around strangers." Ivan scratched another gryphons's ears.   
"They were all tamed at a early age. Robin then handed his guest a few gryphon treats.   
"You want to give them a treat?" He asked.   
"Sure"   
"Okay."   
While Robin gave the rest of the other gryphons a treat, Ivan and Sheba gave theirs to a specific gryphon they liked.   
"Can they be used for transportation?" Ivan touched and took a glimpse of the magnificent wings one one gryphon.   
"It's possible, but they can't go for long distances of you pressure them. It really depends on the gryphon's emotional and strength status."   
It started to rain outside, "we better go before we get caught in the storm." Robin said good night to his gryphons and led the two back to the cabin.   
"You have some very nice gryphons." Sheba dried herself off. "I feel a bit sleepy from our travels, good night." She walked off to her sleeping room.   
"I better go to sleep as well. I need the strength for tomorrow's hike." Ivan looked back, "I'll see you in the morning."   
"Enjoy your sleep. Sweet dreams." Robin went back to finishing other things that needed to be done.   
"Do you think we can really climb that mountain? I mean there's probably a lot of newly fallen snow." Sheba looked out the rain platted window.   
"We're strong enough to go through." Ivan was determined.   
"If you say so." Sheba shrugged and returned to her bed. She took her current sweater she was wearing off and laid it at the foot of her bed. She uncovered the sheets. The bed was soft. She hadn't slept in a bed like this in a long time. She kept awake to feel the softness of the bed.   
" Going to bed?" Ivan took off his trench coat. " I'm going to bed too."   
"No, but in a little bit. This bed is just so soft!" Sheba fell into her pillow. " I looking forward for a great sleep for me tonight, unless you snore..."   
Ivan raised a brow, "I don't snore! What made you think that?"   
"Just making sure you don't disturb my sleep like last time!" Sheba stuck her tongue out. Ivan ignored it.   
"I've just became more tired. Good night." Sheba blew out the candles.   
  
She's so bitchy today. Ivan thought to himself. Why can't she be as nice as she was 2 years ago?   
Ivan? Sheba read into his mind. He opened his eyes to find a dark shadowy person sitting on his bed.   
"Ahh!" O.O! Ivan yelped, "Sheba! Don't do that to me!"   
She used reveal to create a dim light, "what's wrong? I just wanted to see what you were thinking about so I came across your bed.   
Ivan sighed, "so you picked up everything on my thoughts?"   
"I sure did."   
"I'll talk about it in the morning. Right now it's too late. Sheba's reveal light disappeared. She then gave Ivan a quick kiss on the cheek.   
"Ah!" . Ivan felt something moist on his cheek. "Sheba, you didn't have to go that far!"   
"Oh shut up Ivan, get use to it." Sheba giggled and finally went to bed. 


	5. Departure

Chapter 5: Departure   
  
  
  
  
Ivan was completely up. He straighten up his bed and took a shower. Sheba was still sleeping soundly in her bed.   
"Why did she do that to me?" Ivan thought as he packed up his stuff and watched Sheba sleep. " It did feel a bit nice though."   
"It's almost time to go." Ivan shook Sheba gently. "You should be getting up now."   
Sheba inhaled deeply and slowly got up. " Time to go? I just got up."   
"I'll wait for you then." Ivan began making her bed once she got out of it.   
" About last night, I'll explain it after I wash up." Sheba walked off into the bathroom.   
"Why is it that girls act so strange? One minute they seem happy and then the next minute they're angry." He thought to himself again, "I wonder why she did that to me......I doubt it she did it on accident."   
  
Did what on accident? Sheba tapped his shoulder which made Ivan jumped a little.   
"How...did you get done so quick?" Ivan turned his head toward her, he turned back quickly, "you can at least wear something else besides a towel.   
"I didn't come out here for you, I had to get my clothes out of my pack!"   
He replied, "oh I thought it was for a different reason. Sorry about that." Ivan apologized and handed her clothes to her, "here you go."   
"Thank you." She took her clothes and shut the bathroom door behind her. Ivan went back to do anything that hasn't been done, such as checking and packing last minute items. Sheba came out 15 minutes later.   
" Now I can tell you!"   
" oh yes, I remember now, tell me." Ivan threw himself on the top of the bed.   
" I've read your mind....you only rescued me so you could know me more. Don't try and think you can hide your true feelings away. I can already see it. It's okay don't be ashamed." Sheba smiled.   
" Doesn't matter much to me, you'll eventually find that out anyway. We better get going up the mountain." Ivan shrugged and grabbed his pack.   
" Good morning Robin." Sheba saw him writing something, "we are going to go ahead and get going up that mountain."   
" Without eating breakfast?"   
" Whoops I must have forgotten about that!" Sheba sat herself down at the table.   
"It will be my pleasure to cook." Robin began cooking breakfast. Ivan helped him out.   
"You cook very well!" Sheba took a bite out of her breakfast meal. "It will definitely help us out on our climb."   
"You guys couldn't go that far without having breakfast."   
They both finished at a lightning speed rate. (Eat anime style! ^_^ ^^)   
" Here you guys, go on your way. I'll clean up."   
"Are you sure you don't want us to help you with anything?"   
Robin grinned, " no I'm fine. Hurry along now, Ivan, Sheba. I hope we meet again."   
"We sure will!" Ivan took one last look at his new found friend and left to continue on the way to Lalivero. 


	6. Forest Trouble

Chapter 6: Forest Trouble   
  
  
A/N: Yeah! Two chapters done in the same day! :: Applause::   
  
  
  
"I felt strange around that guy." Sheba looked around the forested area.   
"Why, did you like him or something?" Ivan teased, "you know he wouldn't fall for someone like you."   
"Damn it Ivan, it wasn't that I felt!" Sheba hit his shoulder softly, "he had a strange type of power."   
" You didn't have to hit me. Maybe he was an adept. I forgot to ask him."   
" I'm sorry. I hope I didn't hurt you." Sheba leaned her head into his shoulder. He silently hesitated and blushed a little.   
"You didn't hit me that hard." Ivan hid his blushing by turning away. Sheba laughed.   
  
  
Off they went through the cool forests and hills. For three hours of walking, the air became much thinner and cooler. A cool river was nearby.   
"Were rest here." Ivan threw himself on the grass and deeply drank out of the river. The water wasn't warm. It had a clean cool taste which quickly satisfied his thirst. He refilled his canteen.   
" As the air gets thinner, we are going to have to watch ourselves. So if you feel out of breath anytime, tell me so we can rest." Ivan closed his eyes to regenerate his energy that was spent on walking.   
"It's hard to breathe up here, we must be getting closer to the snow capped sections of the mountain." Sheba drank out of her canteen and refilled it for later use. "But I still dont understand how the desert can suddenly turn into a huge mountain region."   
"Legends say that the Suhalla desert transforms into a mountain range every 1,000 years. I've heard this story many times around Suhalla and among the merchants when I went with Master Hammet to Silk Road." Ivan placed his hands in the back of his head for a head rest. He looked up to see a shiny amulet around Sheba's neck. It was the symbol of Jupiter, only in silver and purple plated crystal.   
" I never saw you wear that before. When did you get that? It has some of the same ancient symbols of the gods themselves."   
"Robin gave it to me. He said it will be very helpful across these mountains. She handed him a necklace with a pure gold lightning bolt. "I forgot he told me to give this to you."   
"I sense a strong power flowing out of these necklaces. Could Robin possibly be a master Jupiter adept in disguise?" Ivan examined the bolt.   
" Sheba watch out!" Ivan caught eye of a boulder rolling towards her from a nearby cliff. She tried to blast the rock away with a strong tornado, but it didn't work. Ivan quickly took action and pushed Sheba out of the rolling boulder's reach. He fell near the ground with Sheba close in his arms.   
"You saved me....again." Sheba was starry eyed. Not because of what she said. It was because of the position she was in.   
Ivan helped her get up. " That boulder wasn't an ordinary boulder. That's why you weren't able to blow it out of the way with your tornado."   
" It had to be a golem." Sheba dusted her jeans off. " Thank you again."   
She noticed the rock moving toward them again, " stupid monster," She took out her rod and began flogging it as it came by. She evaded every attack since golems were nothing but slow rock monsters. Ivan delivered painful shocks of plasmas and with the help of the Kikuichimonji blade, the might Asura was released and the golem was felled.   
Sheba shook her head, " that was quite easy, there must be weak monsters here."   
" It's because we've gotten much stronger for the last 2 years."   
"We better watch our backs, you never know what will come and sneak up on you." Sheba took a rock and skipped it across the river.   
"Like you?" Ivan sarcastically said and laughed.   
Sheba smiled, "you like making jokes out of me don't you?"   
" It's fun to make you annoyed." Ivan began running as Sheba chased him playfully.   
"You're such a silly bastard." Sheba caught up with Ivan and rubbed his her hair, which made it it rugged and messy. That didn't matter. He needed a burst of childish play. It soon ended as they hit the snow capped areas of the mountain. 


	7. Hot Spring Delight

Ch. 7: Hot Springs Delight   
  
  
  
A/N: Back again everyone! written at least 8 pages on the trip. And I put $4.50 into my japanese cat bank for collage while I was there! Cheers! ^_^   
  
  
  
  
Four days had passed. The air became extremely cold and unbearable. It snowed lightly, but it soon piled up. The feather robes provided by Robin gave them protection against the cold and wind. Steam rising from over ahead caught Sheba's eye. She darted across the light snow.   
"Hey check this out!" Sheba cried out to Ivan, "it's a hot springs!"   
He directly followed her voice.   
"Sounds nice, but I couldn't." Ivan shook his head, "I didn't bring a swim suit."   
" I didn't bring one either, it doesn't matter much to me as long as you stay out and away from me while I go in there!" Sheba looked at him seriously. He promised to stay away.   
  
" Ivan get lost now, I'm taking a dip." Sheba shoved him far off to the woods and went back to the hot springs. She looked around for any wandering eyes. Her entire body suddenly felt a sharp sting of the cold and wind. With no seconds wasted, she quickly got into the hot springs. It warmed her body up. The water was about 5 ft deep in the middle.   
She placed her head on a smooth rock that stood out in the middle of the springs. She did that notice Ivan was on the other side. He turned around. Sheba saw him and screamed. She covered the top of her body as much as she could with one hand. She used to other one to slap Ivan. It left his cheek burning red.   
"Ivan!" Sheba yelled. " I told you to get lost!"   
" Sheba...I didn't know you were here. Honestly I thought you would be out after an hour."   
" You pervert." Sheba gave him the meanest look he had received from someone.   
" You're misunderstanding, I wasn't here to see you body. I was only here to relax since I saw nothing in the springs."   
She still wouldn't listen, "how dare you!" She slapped his other cheek. This time it had tore into his mind and heart to shreds.   
"Fine I'll go ahead and go. Maybe I can go get myself lost in the snow, left to die." He turned with out looking at her, "I'm sure you'll be happier with the decision.   
"No Ivan, don't take it like that." Sheba grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry. You're the only one I depend on to get back home. Please forgive me for my mistaken actions."   
He shook his hand away from hers, "that's not the point."   
" Please Ivan don't leave!" A tear fell from her emerald eyes. " Please tell me what I did wrong!"   
"You seem unappreciative of my duties to you."   
" That's not true! If I was unappreciated of your help, I wouldn't have followed you all the way here. Please listen to me!"   
  
Ivan turned around to find her eyes as red as his cheeks.   
" Look this is my fault. I hope I didn't hurt you in anyway."   
" I need some time alone." She pushed him off and went into a deep thinking state.   
  
Ivan was back in his clothes again. He waited endlessly for her to come out. He wanted to give her as much time as she needed.   
" Might as well try and find a place to stay for the night."   
Ivan searched in the near woods. He found nothing. For about 20 minutes he looked deeply. Still found nothing. It was getting near lunch time. He came back to the springs and called out.   
" Are you finished?" Sheba snuck behind him and startled him.   
" Yes I'm done."   
" Help me search for a rabbit, I'm getting hungry."   
" That's easy, just look over there."   
Many rabbits came dashing in and out of their burrows in a frenzy. It was a very easy place to catch a rabbit. They were pretty big too. They had a nice white fur winter coat.   
" I've never exactly hunted before. I hate killing animals."   
" Well it's for a good cause Ivan. Just quickly kill it so it won't have to suffer a slow death. I'll demonstrate. Sheba sent a bolt into one of the scurrying rabbits. She then broke it's neck by flogging it with her rod.   
" That was quick."   
" Now you get to clean it since I did the killing part." Sheba began to walked around looking for scattered branches and rocks. She then made a campfire. Ivan did not enjoy splitting open the rabbit. It made his stomach turn. He finally got through and boiled the rabbit meat over the fire.   
" Not bad, but it could use some flavor." Ivan took a first bite.   
" It's better than nothing. At least we have food."   
" This rabbit skin could be useful. Let's save it. Ivan started to dry and stretch out the skin.   
" We better get moving or we'll never find a place to stay." Sheba doused out the fire by piling snow over it. She then cleaned the rest of the area up.   
" I wouldn't want to camp out here at night, it's really cold." 


	8. Freezing Peaks

Ch 8: Freezing Peaks   
  
A/N: Okay some of that mushy so called " Romance" stuff hits the story..finally well sort of. I won't go that far like what happen in the other story. o.o But many people liked it......  
  
  
  
  
More snow covered the land and it became much harder to walk. Going up hills was even harder. It took slow and careful movements to get up. Sheba was starting to fall behind. Indeed she was tired. Ivan knew this so he did everything he could to help her get across. Finally a cavern in a cliff was in sight.   
  
" Finally....we can rest!" Sheba gasped for air after the hardest walk she had ever had.   
" Take it easy, you might make yourself faint if you do that."   
Sheba nodded and leaned against the wall of the cavern.   
" You need to rest, I'll go ahead and start the fire." Ivan went back outside the white wonderland. 15 minutes later, he came back with stones and thick branches.   
" Warmer?" Ivan lit the fire with a small lightning strike. He took out his blanket and wrapped it around her. The temperature was dropping dramatically in a short period of time.   
" Are you okay? Your face looks pale."   
" I'm fine Sheba, it'll go away." He moved in closer to the fire. The fire was nice and soon it became a light source as night fall came.   
" The temperature must be at least below zero." Sheba shivered.   
" It's very unusual for it to be this cold. Ivan huddled his arms together, " It's even colder here than in Imil."   
Sheba threw a branch to fuel the fire. Then she started to hug his arm. How nice and warm it was. Ivan then gave her a skeptical look.   
" I know it's cold, but you dont have to do that just to keep warm. ^_^ Ivan smiled.   
It 's so cold. This gives me the opportunity for close encounters.   
Sheba slowly locked her arms around both of his. He just followed along her plans so she doesn't get angry again, like that one time.   
" I know you like me, admit it. It's pretty obvious by your actions." Ivan grasped her hands softly with his.   
" Fine I'll admit it." She used his shoulder as a head rest, " maybe I do."   
" I feel warmer now." He tucked his chin into her hair.   
" Why because your girl is in your arms?"   
" Huh?" Ivan blinked, " when did I say that?"   
" Right now, in your mind."   
" But I've would of...." Ivan was cut off with Sheba's lips pressing against his. He held his breath and kissed her back.   
Ivan snorted, " I'm not ready for this. Give me some time to think about it if that's okay."   
" All the time you want."   
  
The cold air soon made Sheba feel very drowsy and soon fell asleep deeply into his arms. Ivan shook his head in disgust and had to deal with that girl in his arms for the rest of the night.   
  
  
It stopped snowing early in the morning. Ivan noticed a small sized adult deer nibbling on the bark of some trees. Ivan used halt to stop the deer in it's tracks. He then cast sleep and got ready to give it the final blow. He tried what Sheba did to that poor bunny rabbit. He slammed his staff onto the deer's neck which broke it instantly. He dragged it into the cave.   
Sheba awoke with the smell of fresh meat cooking. She shot her eye open to see what was going on.   
" I got some breakfast, have some." Ivan offered her a piece of cooked deer meat. She was hungry and gladly took it.   
" I hope I cooked it well enough, I haven't cooked deer in a while." Ivan took a chuck of the meat and shoved it up his mouth.   
" You're such a pig." Sheba took all the rest of the meat. " Save some for me!"   
" Pig? You ate as much as I did!"   
" No you didn't."   
" Yes I did."   
" Don't get me wrong, I saw you take that big piece of meat Ivan!"   
" So? There was a lot left anyway, and you ate it. So were equal!"   
" Fine with me."   
" We got plenty of time this morning, wanna go out and play in the snow?"   
" Sure, but you can't catch me!" Sheba rubbed some snow in his face. She ran into the snow laughing. Ivan smiled and soon caught up with her, she wasn't as fast as he was. He lifted her up and held her so that their eyes met. They both smiled at each other. It was like that for a few seconds and threw her into the snow to wrestle her.   
  
" You're much more playful than I've imagined." Ivan said as he threw snow into her face. "Ha! I got you back fair and square!" He ran, laughing and teasing her.   
" Come back her young man!" Sheba got up and began to throw snowballs at him. She pelted him every single time. He soon gave up and rested in the snow, all warned out by play.   
" That was fun. We should do that again." Ivan said to Sheba as she dropped herself next to him.   
" We should shouldnt we." Sheba chuckled and planted multiple moist kisses on his cheek. Ivan was turning beet red.   
" Please Sheba, I'm not ready for that just yet." Ivan nuzzled his cheek with hers, " we better get going now."   
" Okay," she whispered into his ear. 


	9. Picard

Chapter 9: Picard  
Talk talk talk......that's all they do in this chapter and other chapters......  
  
A sudden snowstorm came up at the high peaks of the mountain. Snow was quickly pilling up. The snow was unbearable to walk in. The wind was extremely cold, not even the warmest fur or feather coat could stand up to this intense coldness.  
" It's....too......cold." Sheba collapsed into the snow. Ivan helped her up. " Are you going to be okay?"  
"My legs are...so..numb." Sheba dragged her legs with every ounce of energy she had left, "I won't be able to make it..."  
" Yes you will! We'll come through this together!" A string of confidence raced through Ivan's body. But the cold soon began to take over. He began to feel very tired and after 5 minutes of struggling, he collapsed  
"Ivan remember...don't give..up." The cold settled into Sheba. She said no more.  
" I'm sorry for this...." Ivan said his last breath.  
:O  
Oh HO!................................what will happen!  
do you know? Yes? No? Maybe? shucks.........  
"What the hell?" Picard looked out his window to see a bright purple light outside about 75 ft away.  
He put on his gloves, snow shoes and his heavy snow jacket and quickly dashed outside.  
He ran towards the purple light. He found two bodies nearly buried under the snow. One of the bodies resembled an old friend.  
"Sheba!?" Picard picked her up and Ivan also, " what is she doing out here in a place like this?" He carried the bodies back to his cabin.  
Warmth returned into Sheba's body. She woke up to find a pair of golden eyes looking at her.  
" Hey Sheba, you're awake. It's been awhile since I last saw you." Picard gave her some hot chocolate.  
" Picard? I thought you we're living of the Lemurian coast." Sheba slowly drank her hot chocolate and placed it down.  
" I still do, but I like to go up here during winter, especially when the desert disappeared.  
She sipped more of the hot drink, " How's Ivan? Where is he?"  
" Ivan... I remember him now. He's still sleeping and recovering nicely."  
" Our psynergy spared us.. is that how you found us?"  
Picard nodded, " I saw a bright flash so I went over to investigate. That's how I found you guys."  
She got out of the bed she was in, " perhaps Ivan is able to get up?"  
" I would give him a little more time to rest, he had it pretty rough out there."  
" I understand."  
" So have you heard from Jenna or Felix lately?" Picard asked.  
" About 3 weeks ago, they said everything is doing fine in Vale. A lot has happen. I was captured by Babi again.  
He keeps wanting to continue construction on the Babi lighthouse. When I refused, I was ambushed and taken away as hostage."  
" What about Ivan?"  
" Oh, yeah he just came and rescued me. He's taking me home again."  
" At least you're not doing this alone," Picard added. " I'll join you guys if that's okay."  
" Of course it's okay. You're my friend. Why would I turn down to you like that. The more the merrier." Sheba finished her hot coco  
" Would you like more?"  
"Oh hot coco? Yeah!"  
" Huh? Where am I? IN A HOUSE!?"  
" Hey you're awake!" Picard responded. " Remember me at the last battle?"  
" Ah, the mercury adept of Felix's party, yes I do Picard." Ivan stood out of bed. " Didn't you say you lived near the ocean?"  
" I do live there, this is my second house."  
" But why here?"  
" Mercury Adepts like snow, just like that beautiful friend of yours."  
" Who Mia?" Ivan began drinking his hot coco away that Picard gave him, " you know she's already engaged."  
" It's true, Jenna mentioned it in the last letters I received. She was quite upset."  
" Engaged!?" Picard said in a low shocked voice, "to whom?"  
" Isaac, you remember him right?" Ivan said, " the leader of my group."  
" Oh, that guy?" "The one that Jenna liked?"  
" Yes." Sheba brushed her hair away from her face." But don't worry Picard. There are plenty of good looking girls out there. You'll find one sooner or later."  
" I still can't get over Alice." Picard hanged his head.  
" Alice..." Sheba sat next to him, " was she the one you loved?"  
" She was my love for the longest of times. That monster Babi. He took her away and her draught water. I looked everywhere for her.  
Then I found out she was killed after weeks of searching. Babi is an evil man. Never trust him. He should be killed again for what he's done to everyone."  
" Is that a picture of her over there?" Ivan pointed to the picture of the brown haired woman.  
" It was the last painting I've made for her before she went missing."  
" I'm so sorry Picard." Sheba placed her hand on his arm. " You did everything you could."  
" It's all right, you were faithful and loyal to each others love, she must be very proud on you." Ivan put his hand on his shoulder.  
" How long so you think this storm will last?" Sheba looked out the window sill. All she saw was the frost covering the window.  
" Maybe about tomorrow, then I can lead you out of here through a shortcut."  
" A short cut?"  
" Yeah, it will save us a day of traveling."  
" That's good. At least we save a day." Ivan looked at a strange object on the desk.  
It looked like a pair of reading glasses, but slightly different. The lens were black as well as the rims.  
" Picard, what kind of glasses are these? I haven't seen something like this before." Ivan picked up the shades to get a closer look.  
" They're called sunglasses, but I prefer to call them shades." Picard replied. " You wear them to keep the sun out of your eyes."  
" But were did you get something like this at?"  
" I found them in a container on my doorstep the other day. I guess it was a present of some sort. I'm surprised they found my house out here."  
" That's very odd," Sheba yawned and then fell into Picard's bed. " It's getting late and I'm still tired from the cold. May I..sl.."  
" Go ahead and sleep in my bed, I'll be more than happy to sleep on the floor." Picard already knew her question and quickly answered it.  
" What about me?" Ivan piped in. "Where do I sleep?"  
" The couch is fine with you right?"  
" Of course, no problem." Ivan went over to the couch and quickly fell asleep. 


	10. Caught

Chapter 10: Caught   
The morning came. The sky outside was remarkably clear and bright. The cool winter sun covered the snow with flashing light, enough light to hurt the eyes.  
Ivan was up as usual, having man to man conversations with Picard. Sheba was soundly sleeping. Picard was telling him Sheba would get mad if wakened up early.  
He told him the time when Felix accidentally tripped over her when he was sleep walking and how he received a strong jolt the next morning.  
Sheba woke up on her own and saw the two sitting around and talking.  
" Good morning guys." Sheba yawned and fell out of bed.  
" Good morning Shebs," Picard replied, "had a good sleep?"  
" In fact I did." Sheba nodded slightly and looked out the window.  
" Hiss!" Sheba let out a cat like hiss as the sun and snow blinded her.  
She quickly turned around, " it's very bright outside..too bright for me."  
" Cat." Ivan mumbled.  
" And a feisty one too." Picard snickered under his breath.  
" Excuse me!? What did you say?" Sheba scolded back at the two, who were sweatdropping.  
"Nothing...we are just talking about this feisty ugly cat that came to my door when I was little and how my uncle caught it and ate it for dinner." Picard tried to make his backstabbing story make sense,  
" really my uncle likes to eat cats."  
" Very unlikely," She hit the two guys up side the head softly," why couldn't have Jenna or at least another one of my kind be with me on this escort?"  
" We can try and act like it."  
" No that's all right, where's breakfast?" She wondered.  
" I'll cook some for you. What do you want?" Picard got up and went to go prepare breakfast for Sheba, " me and Ivan already had ours."  
" Just give me the usual, you know like back in the day."  
" Okay, as you wish." Picard got a quick start on cooking her breakfast.  
  
She tried not to look at Ivan, or she would start blushing red all over her face. She said nothing and stared into space.  
After breakfast all three of them went across the flat snow covered valley. A ring of mountains surrounded the valley. A few small forests laid nestled at the bottom of the mountain ring.   
Picard showed them the shortcut he was talking about earlier. It was a cavern in the far northern end of the valley. With reveal, they were able to see better in the dark cavern.  
The cave was narrow and small. It was made centuries ago to get pass through the uncharted areas of the mountain. The sound of small waterfalls rushing silently through the cave bounced off the walls of the cave.  
Ice crystals hanged from the cave roof in different colors, just like the auroras of Imil.  
  
"Shh.... I hear something." Picard stopped to listen to some odd noises, " it sounds like humans, someone's here."  
Before the Jupiter Adepts could respond, five Tolbi officers zapped both of Ivan and Sheba's psynergy with a strange looking device.  
" Picard get outta here, save yourself!" Sheba yelled as she was grabbed and pulled away from him. The soldiers heard this and quickly searched were they got caught.  
Fortunately, Picard cloaked himself with the cloak ball that Isaac let him keep.  
He followed the troops in the large center of the cave. Ivan was captured as well, since he was going to be executed for taking Tolbi's most valuable hostage.  
  
"You stupid children." The Tolbi soldier pushed them both into a small jail cell. " Once lord Babi gets confirmation of your capture, you will both die."  
"You won't get away with this." Sheba snapped seriously, " as the child of the gods you will be deeply punished for you evil deeds."  
"Silence you stupid slut!"  
" Don't call her a slut!" Ivan pelt the soldier with a rock." Don't underestimate her power!"  
"Why you little...." The soldier struck a knife through the cell bars, but another soldier grabbed his arm, "stop! If you kill them now they will become useless!"  
" You're right, let's use them first." The soldier went back to his post.  
" I hope Picard come quickly. I don't like the sound of this." Sheba whispered into his ear since she didn't have any psynergy left to use mind read.  
" I won't let them hurt you. Picard will come, I can feel it." Ivan whispered back.  
" I'm scared Ivan." Sheba held onto his arm. " What if they do something bad to use now?"  
Ivan grasped her hand, " nothing will happen to us, don't worry about it."  
Picard saw his chance to save them. He sneaked in near the jail cell. The guard was alert. Picard estimated that there was at least 15 soldiers in the area alone.  
He began his attack. With his psynergy he used frost onto an unexpected soldier, which froze him solid. The other soldiers gasped and trembled with fear as they saw one of their soldiers all the sudden frozen without warning.  
They surrounded the frosted pillar as Picard planned. Then he summoned a wall of water came splashing in on them. With the help of glacier, all of the soldiers became frozen.  
" Now for the weapons." Picard snatched the 2 rods and the Ivan's sword and came dashing towards the jail cell.  
" Here you two!" Picard opened the jail cells with the key he took from the frozen guard. He tossed two psynergy stones to them. He then gave them their weapons.  
" They've escaped! Get them!" The commander barked and about twice as many soldiers came darting in.  
"over here you guys!" Sheba saw wingless dragon like raptors. The creatures had small triangle shaped ears. Two small horns stuck out at each side of the monster's head and a smaller horn between its nostrils. The creature was about the size of a horse.  
" Wow, Oradons!" Ivan hopped onto one, " I used to see these everywhere in Xian!"  
" There great for transportation and very friendly too!" Sheba quickly used telepathy between her and the animals and told them their situation.  
" They understand what's going on, let's hurry!" Sheba tugged on the reins and rode off with the others.  
" This way leads us out!" Picard took the lead," these guys are pretty fast."  
" There not usually this fast, but I'm sure they went trough training in Tolbi." Sheba said, controlling the Oradon with ease.  
A/N: BAKOOM! all done! You never know when I and my buddy Ultros will appear!...as long as you don't tease the octopus kids... 


	11. The More the Merrier

Chapter 11: The more the Merrier  
"There's the way out, slow down." Picard commanded and reach the end of the cave. The view was pretty nice.  
You could see the entire valley and a few scattered towns. A winding trail led down from the mountain.  
It was steep and a very very very long drop.  
" Careful now, it's a long way down from here." Picard warned. The leading trail still had a little snow which made it slippery.  
It took a nearly 2 hours to get down.  
" There's Suhalla Pass, we have to go around it so we don't get spotted."  
" I understand that." A mysterious voice firmly said. Out of the shadows of the trees was another person with an Oradon.  
It looked like a young female around Sheba's age. She had light brownish texture of hair with blonde tips that shined when the sun shined on them.  
She was wearing a gold dragon amulet and a red tunic covered in decorations of dragon printed silk. She carried a strange weapon. She wore gloves with long silver claws.  
" Who are you?" Ivan asked.  
" Jan." She replied, " I heard you needed to get around Suhalla Pass, am I correct?"  
" I guess." Ivan shrugged.  
" You won't make it around without me to help you." Jan advised, "Tolbi's already packed the area off with strange life forms"  
" We're strong enough, no monster can stop us." Picard said with confidence." We can get through with ease."  
" That isn't the point. You won;t make it alive unless I'm there with you."  
" How do we know you're not a spy? Sheba sneered, " You'll probably make us fall into some trick!"  
" No trick Sheba, just mind read me." Jan folded her arms.  
" How did she know my name?" Sheba thought and then mind read her.  
" She's right, her thoughts tell truthfully." Sheba backed away.  
" Why wont we let her join us?" Picard suggested, " we might need the help after all."  
" There are soldiers hiding out in this area, we might have to fight a few."  
" There a post over there, let's hurry and get out of here before we get spotted." Ivan focused on the post just down the hill.  
" This way." Jan pointed to a pine forest," it's the only way not to get seen."  
  
So they went into the pine forest. Monsters were abundant here. Some were easily defeated, some were not. Apparently, a huge clawed monster blocked the only trail.  
" Don't even try to pass humans!" The monster deeply growled.  
" And why can't we pass?" Sheba said politely, " We don.."  
  
"SILENCE!!!!!" I let no one with human blood pass though!"  
" Were going to have to force our way through!" Jan yelled.  
  
"You already lost this battle humans!"  
The monster charged at Jan who jumped onto the creatures head. The monster roared as Jan began to slash into the monster's face.  
The monster shook his head violently and quickly threw Jan off. Sheba soften her landing by using "Gravity"  
" Careful Jan." Sheba looked at her and continued to use her wind attacks.  
Ivan combined his attacks with hers as Picard healed the others and physically attack the monster with the Aqua Axe.  
"Good keep doing that!" Jan's hands began to glow burning red (Erupting Burning Finger?).  
She sent out a giant fireball towards the wind tornado and ignited it into a flaming whirl.  
It took the monster off it's feet.  
  
"You'll pay for that!" The monster spited out sharp vine shards flying towards Sheba like a hawk.  
"Sheba!" He pushed her and got stricken by the shards meant to hit the girl. They pierced into his chest, barely missing his vital organs.  
He screamed in pain and fell back. Sheba ran to him and used her Djinn Rescue to take away some of the pain.  
" Take this!" Picard threw ice shards into the monster and froze it a little.  
Jan finished the battle by using one of her best fire attacks. She began to glow red as she created many fire illusions of herself.  
The swirling illusions began to plunge into the monster, leaving it's body scorched. It then turned into ashes.  
" Are you okay?" Jan ran to him. " Hey, Picard...hurry and heal him!"  
Picard nodded and began the healing process. His healing magic wasn't as strong as Mia's, but it was effective.  
He began the process by carefully taking out the vine shards. Ivan gritted his teeth. Removing the shards was extremely painful.  
Never in his life had he suffered such an injury as painful as this one.  
" Hang in there, everything's going to be okay. " Sheba grasped his hand tightly.  
Jan picked up one of the shards. " It's a poison shard. It may leave you paylized for a little bit."  
" Oh great..." Ivan smirked.  
" I need to get to the center of the wound." Picard tugged lightly on his coat, " Is it all right for me to take this off?"  
" Just....get rid of the pain...."  
" I take that as a yes." Picard carefully slip it off and got deeper into the root of the wound. It wasn't a very nice sight.  
For every shard that struck him, it left a deep flesh cut behind. Newly spilled blood swept across his chest, making it look as if he become a pool of blood.  
Picard cleaned out the blood, which changed his white first aid washcloth into a deep red color. As he healed the wound, slowly it stopped bleeding and the flesh cuts began to close.  
In minutes the wound was improving and recovering to its full potential.  
"Can you move?" Jan asked.  
He tried to get up, but his arms were harder to move than ever.  
"We better stay here." Sheba protested, " Ivan could hurt himself easily if we continue. "His injury was my fault."  
" It was no ones fault Sheba...and it wouldn't hurt to camp out with the stars, as long as we don't have a smoking fire." Jan looked around for some firewood. " Help me find some wood strong guy!"  
" Whatever, that'll be easy."  
" I'll stay here to watch over Ivan," Sheba began to turn red, " there are a lot of monsters searching out for fresh blood."  
" Okie dookie...." Jan wandered off into the woods for a certain kind of tree wood. The wood she was looking for did not smoke as much as regular firewood.  
Sheba watched them slowly disappear into the pine forest. She turned to look at Ivan. His head was down and his eyes were closed.  
She began to speak to him, " You should have let me take the pain."  
" No....." Ivan could barely speak, " I protect you at all costs...it's an escort's duty."  
" I'm sorry for making you suffer so much like this,"  
" You don't need to apologize, I'm not angry at you."  
" I though you were going to be really mad at me."  
" Wha..what made you think that?" Ivan suddenly laughed.  
" I'm just worried...here I'll make this up to you somehow."  
"Make what...u.." Ivan's speech faded as Sheba placed her mouth over his.  
He blinked after she slowly backed off. "No need to get so kissy about this!"  
"Then why did you participate?"  
He was silent.  
"Well, loverboy? Confess!"  
"Fine, I'm only doing this whole escort thing because I can't get over my crush 2 years ago..."  
Sheba smile and hugged him, " see you do love me!"  
" Easy now, you're going to make my wounds worse!"  
Sheba made an eye watering face, " you can at LEAST stop sounding so mean!" She turned away.  
"Sorry, don't take to so personally. Really I didn't mean it in that way."  
" Just..just shut up you mean bastard!" She said in an upsetting tone, " Don't even talk to me!"  
  
Ivan said nothing after that, now he felt really guilty about his actions towards her.  
  
Meanwhile back in the pine forest...  
  
"Hey Mister Picard man! The right kind of wood to get is over here!" Jan signaled him.  
" What's the difference between that wood and these?"  
" This wood is smokeless, so we don't get spotted." Jan grabbed and armful of sticks.  
" I'll help you with that." He took half the sticks from Jan's arms. "Let's head back..." 


	12. Hidden Forestry

Chapter 12: Hidden forestry   
"I made the woman mad...." Ivan thought to himself.  
He tried speaking to her again, "Please forgive my obnoxious immature behavior."  
"Talking like Kraden won't help." She sneered and wandered off into the forest.  
" Hey don't leave me!" He shouted to her, " I swear not to be mean to you again! Please....."   
"You said that last time," she stopped, " why can't I just leave you here for the monsters, maybe then   
You'll feel my emotions."  
"Don't do this to me," He mumbled. " Just don't go..."   
  
She studied him for a moment. She could tell he meant because the way he looked at her. Those eyes,   
revealing full emotion and expressions. She closed her eyes to think about it.  
" Don't let it happen again." Sheba warned him.  
" It won't I promise." Ivan said calmly. He could hear footsteps coming closer. He turned his head   
back, noticing his other friends had found the firewood.  
" Hey you guys are back!" Sheba took some of the firewood off of Picard, who was carrying most of it.  
" I'll go ahead and find some rocks." Sheba put the firewood down. She looked around for scattered   
rocks, big enough to keep the flames from spreading. There was a lot. Many of them hidden partly in the   
ground and in the grass. One by one she picked them up until she could bear no more. She released   
them, making the rocks fall.   
  
" There." Sheba set them up. She placed some sticks into the ring of rocks and lit them with a   
lightning bolt. The flames exploded a little, but remained under control. Sheba heard some rustling in   
some nearby bushes. She suddenly got up and took her rod with her. Jan didn't noticed. She was too busy   
relaxing near the fire with her eyes shut. Picard blinked and watched her. He said nothing. Ivan was   
watching too, only to bother her.  
" It's only so..."  
"Quiet!" She told Ivan through mind read. She got in closer by the bush. She raised her rod and sent a   
loud crushing noise. Jan looked up, moving her eyes quickly in every direction.  
"Flogging....." Picard said under his breath.   
"Hey.....Picard help me drag this thing over here!" Sheba heaved, trying to drag her prize. Being the   
strongest out of the three, he went over and helped her drag it near the fire.  
" food....I forgot about that!" Jan sweatdropped.  
"Nice kill you got there!" " Tell me when dinner will be done." Ivan said knowing he didn't have to   
do anything because of his injury. Her prize wasn't all that big. The animal was only a good sized deer.   
Deer were rare to be seen in the day because of the monsters that took over the forest. Picard took out   
a small knife, used for rope cutting in his old days as a captain. He sliced the belly of the deer,   
making Sheba gag. He was used to doing this to fish so he wasn't sickened out at all. He got the meat   
prepared and the excess parts thrown out. He threw them far so the monsters could eat them.  
"Good you're done, now it's my turn to cook!" Sheba began to cook the meat over the fire. Picard   
cleaned his knife with a rag and shined back into perfection. Fifteen minutes slowly passed. The meat was just about finished. As Sheba announced that dinner was ready, she handed some meat to Ivan.  
" Hey Ivan dinners done." She woke him up. The scent of food made Ivan go after it, devouring every   
piece like everyone else did.  
" You're cooking makes even the monsters gag." Ivan commented.  
" What did you say you li.." Sheba grabbed his shirt collar.  
" I'm just kidding!" Ivan chuckled, " you can't even take a joke!" Sheba let out a growl.  
" They don't usually..argue like this." Picard observed, " Two years before they acted like totally   
different..."   
"Heh, they like each other," Jan ate like an animal, tearing off the meat with her teeth. " No doubt   
about that."  
" True." Picard yawned.   
Jan was the first to finish. The meat's juices got all over on her hands so she licked them clean. She   
seemed to be the only one not eating like a human. She then curled up in a corner to sleep.  
" It lights out for me." Picard found a place to sleep. " That leaves you two."  
Ivan was making mumbling noises again. Sheba got very annoyed when he did that. She knew he was doing   
it on purpose.  
" Stop it!" Sheba whined in a low tone." You're going to attract a monster!" Then she heard a loud   
screech, more like a screech between harpy and a gryphon.  
"You see!" Sheba whispered. The noise startled it and sent up a cold chill to her skin and spine.  
" It's only a large owl."  
She began to hear other noises. Small ones and loud ones. She hoped it wasn't anything that resembled   
an insect. She hated them, especially the big ones like spiders. She finally got used to the sounds.  
She went to go check on Ivan. He was already fast asleep.  
" You're get what you deserve Ivan...just wait until tomorrow morning and see." She said evilly in her mind. 


	13. Morimachi

Chapter 13: The Hidden Town   
It was extremely hard to get up. Being the one who "slept" in all the time it was difficult to make departure from slumber land. She had set up Breath to wake her up early. He nudged her on the cheek, telling her silently to wake up. The Djinni knew about her little plan. He could see why she wanted to get back at him. Ivan always teased her. He had known all the recent events that she had to go through.  
  
"Is it time?" She whispered, still half asleep. Breath replied with a squeak.  
"Good." She got up. "Show me where the sap is Breath."   
  
A bright sphere of purple raced ahead of her and stopped. Before she went over to follow the signal, Sheba grabbed a flat surfaced stick. She approached the tree. Sap had been flowing out of it. It wasn't ordinary sap. It was the kind that stung on flesh, like poison ivy. It wasn't all that bad. It wiped off easily. She stuck the stick in to get the sap. She was careful not to get it on her, or her trick would have backfired. Breath lead her to Ivan, both had evil looks in their eyes.   
  
"It's payback time." She let the sap drip onto his arms and his cheeks. She would put in "other" areas, but that was just too mean. She then wiped the stick onto the tree and threw far away so no one would notice. She went back to her sleeping spot giggling softly. Ivan had awakened from a sudden sting on his skin. He yelled out....quietly to himself and looked around. The tree that he slept by could have not done this. He knew that kind of tree couldn't produce such a stinging sap. He then looked at Sheba, glaring at her. He had a feeling it was she who put sap on him. He felt his paralysis gone and stumbled over to her. He did it very quietly so she wouldn't know that he was sneaking behind her. He endured the stinging pain and tried not to make any noise. He read into her mind.  
  
"Hey! What's your problem!?" He yelled into her mind bending down on his knees and glaring at the girl.  
"Oh the sap?" She asked. "You know you deserved it! Hey you told me you would stop yelling at me!"  
He sighed and said calmly. "How did I deserved it Sheba I didn't even do anything to you!"   
"Yes you did! All this time you teased me, and you at times made me feel like crying...you even make mean jokes about me!" She hissed.   
"You could have told me to stop." Ivan wiped all of the sap with some water and a cloth.   
"I did tell you to stop, but you still went on!"   
  
He was mentally chocking. He couldn't think of anything to say to her.   
"Are you even listening?" She demanded."I'm beginning to hate you Ivan."  
"I really screwed myself up." He muttered under his breath.   
"I didn't mean it." Sheba stopped arguing. Ivan looked depressed now.  
  
"Ivan..."  
  
"I'm sorry." He said quietly, not looking back at her.   
"I don't really hate you." Sheba said softly. "Don't take it the other way."   
He ignored her.  
  
  
"Give me some time alone."  
"Just don't take it so hard." She went and found another spot to stay in. Breath was waiting for her. She talked to him quietly. The conversation soon began to bring a few tears in her eyes. He was giving her the cold shoulder. She knew she couldn't get him to talk to her.   
"Hey what's wrong?" Jan walked over to her. She turned her head.   
"There's nothing wrong Jan. I'm fine." She turned it back toward Breath.   
"No I heard about the conflict this morning. Something is wrong." Jan sat down by her. "I might be able to help."   
"What would do if someone gave you the cold shoulder?" "I would give them some time to themselves and explain to them later when they don't feel as bad."   
"I don't want him to think I hate him..."   
"Everything will work out eventually." Jan assured, "I'll make Picard talk with him after breakfast."   
"Thanks." Sheba hugged her. "I knew I could count on a friend."   
"It was no problem." She got up, "Picard went out to hunt, he'll be back soon. "He said he wants to try and cook this time."   
"All right."  
  
Ivan took out his flute. He hadn't practice playing in a while. This was a good time to practice. He thought of a song to play. After a few minutes of thinking, he started to play a song that his mother had taught him. It started out at a medium place. It sounded angst and mysterious at once. He felt it could cheer him up. His mother had told him to play the song whenever he felt heartbroken or depressed. He continued to play. Sheba heard the sweet song. It lured her to him. She had never heard him play it in that way before. Picard heard it too, but he stayed where he was to listen to it. Sheba approached him again.  
  
"The Minuet of the Jupiter Lighthouse.." She said softly in front of him. He nodded without looking at her.   
  
"Sister taught me."   
  
"You play it like a masterpiece."   
  
"Thanks...I play it whenever I feel down." "  
I'm sorry about this morning..." She whispered, bringing up the issue again.   
"I think I did deserve it."   
"Oh really? What's done is done, but it still didn't change my feelings for you." Sheba sat cross-legged on the forest floor.   
"Mine haven't changed as well." "Are you ready to head back?" She said getting up. "Breakfast will be coming you know."   
"I am." He slipped the flute back into its case and into the bag. Picard had recently gotten back from killing two ducks. He had finished plucking them and left Jan to do the butchering this time.  
  
"They got back together again." Jan muttered something to Picard. She finished cutting the meat up. She helped Picard began cooking the sliced duck.   
"Sheba must have explained to him." Picard took some meat. "They look very well together."   
"They look related, I mean what if they are related?"   
"It's impossible. Sheba couldn't be related to him in anyway."  
"You never know though....they could be cousins."  
"What are you two talking about?" Sheba turned her head to hear them talking low.   
"About food and cooking, nothing else." Jan began to talk about how to cook the meat so Sheba wouldn't become suspicious.   
"It's almost finished anyway." Jan took the cooked meat off the fire to cool. The deer skin that Ivan had saved made a very good place to put meat out to cool. The meat cooled and everyone ate, preparing for the day ahead. Ivan was able to move again so it was time to move on. The Oradons moved freely into the forest. The forest slowly ceased into a clearing. This place wasn't marked on the map. It was hidden deep in the heart of the forest, isolated away from the world's problems.  
  
"There is a town straight ahead." Jan pointed to the town just 100 yards away, " I think it is Morimachi."  
"Never heard of the place." Picard shook his head, "is this like how Lemuria is, blocked off by outsiders?"  
"Not exactly, but yes. It is a town hidden in the forests."  
"Do you live here?" Ivan piped it.  
"No, but I live among the forests here, but I do visit this town often to check things out."  
"So that's how you pulled that fire attack on that monster.."  
"Yea, just plain psynergy." Jan said, heading toward the town, "it's getting dark, we better head in."  
The others followed until they were stopped by two guards.  
"Hello Jan, are they with you?" The guard asked.  
"They are."  
"Proceed." The guards let them into the village. The village wasn't too big. It had two plazas with beautiful marble fountains in the center. The houses were tall blue rimed cottages that were close or put together. Those were in the left plaza. The right plaza had all the business related things like market stalls and shops. There was also an Inn.  
"It's a nice place." Sheba astonishingly scanned her surroundings.  
"I can get you guys a room for free." Jan got off the Oradon. "My friend owns it."  
"Cool, but where do we put the Oradon?" Ivan asked.  
"I'll go take them into the inn's stables." Jan led them nearby to the stable. The Oradons were secured and fed.  
"I'm tired....and a bit hungry too." Ivan heard his stomach growling.  
"Marle cooks great food. You'll like it."  
  
As they entered the inn, Jan told Marle about her friend's situation. She understood and led them upstairs to four bedrooms. Each room had a small bed, a writing desk, and a lovely vertical window to look out of. Green drapes were hung neatly to match the room's forest theme interior. Each room even had its own bathroom, very rare in Wayard. The Inn was fairly large. Luckily, Marle had a crew of maids to clean the amount of rooms. After getting settled in the rooms, dinner was just about finished. After dinner was finished, they all went upstairs again into Picard's room to chat and discuss travel plans. Tomorrow they would head into the Suhalla Pass. Soon after the talking stopped and everyone departed into their rooms to sleep.  
A/N: By the way...that song Ivan played is the music that you hear in the Jupiter Lighthouse... 


	14. Seer Seeing

Ch 14: Seer seeing  
Heat arose upon the air. Ashes were spread around like pollen on windy days. She gasped at the site of the fire. It didn't feel like a dream. She felt the flames burn into her skin and jumped back. Smoke covered her lungs and made it difficult to breathe. Her eyesight was blurry. As it slowly cleared, she saw the thing that was burning in the rage of the blaze. The buildings were nearly scorched and black. Palm trees were burning and crashing to the ground from the fire slicing and eating away its precious hide. Then it did the same to the obelisk that centered the town. The sacred place where she was found, was destroyed. The only place known to her as home, gone. With a second glance, many of the people who lived here perished. Bodies scattered the ground, making a great feast for the blaze. She looked up. A dark tall pure black shadow was above the burning town. As she looked, her heart felt like being stabbed with a thousand needles. It felt worse when the shadow spoke.  
"It won't be long now." It laughed evilly and disappeared, spreading slowly toward her.  
"No!" Sheba gasped as she woke up. She felt cold sweat drop down from her neck. She was stiff and scared. Hot streams of tears fell down her cheek. She kept telling herself to calm down and breathe. Outside would be a good place to get fresh air. She quietly went down the stairs without a sound. She walked outside to the fountain steps. After awhile, she still couldn't calm down after the vision. Every thought of the event hit like a sword slicing her flesh away. Her eyes were as red as ever. She didn't dare blow her nose or someone might hear. The very cold air finally hit her senses. She had forgotten her feather robe in her room, which she regretted. There was no way she was going to go back and get the robe.  
"What's wrong? What happened?" Out of nowhere Ivan came out from the other side of the fountain.  
"It's..none of your concern." She said quietly, trying to hide her tears.  
"Yes it is, tell me."  
"Lalivero......" Sheba chocked through all her tears. She tried to explain, but all her sobbing prevented it.  
Ivan quickly read her mind. Then he had felt her embrace. "We...must....hurry." She whispered, crying into him.  
"Shh...let it all out." He said quietly said and returned a closer embrace, leaning his head into her neck. She had chocked every few seconds. Ivan with one finger gently dried her tears off.  
  
"Don't let this get to you, someone maybe playing with your mind."  
  
"But what if it isn't?"  
  
"I don't have the answer to that."  
  
"It's cold you know." Ivan made his feather robe so it would cover the both of them."You'll freeze out here."  
She nodded slightly.  
"I'll walk you back inside. You need to rest." He whispered into her ear. He walked her back into her room a few minutes later.  
"Thank you. I feel a little better now."  
"If you need me, I'll be two doors down." He started to leave.  
"Wait don't leave yet . . . stay for a while?" Sheba insisted. He grinned a smile back, "I had a feeling you would say that." He shut the door and silently locked it. (uh-oh)  
  
"Nice night isn't it?" Sheba looked into the moon in the center of the sky. It was mostly covered by the night clouds that hung around in the sky. "You can see the sky much clearly here than anywhere else."  
"The night isn't as nice as you are." Ivan said softly and wrapped his arms around her slender waist.  
She turned her head toward them, "It finally hit you?"  
"Yes." Ivan nodded and touched her cheek. Sheba leaned in closer to kiss him.  
"I guess this is my cue." Ivan thought to himself.  
He tighten his grip and deepen his kiss. He felt his heart leap out of him.  
"Don't leave my side." She broke the kiss.  
"I will I promise."  
  
Ivan began to purposely breathe into Sheba's neck.  
"Is that supposed to mean something?" she asked, being pushed on top of the bed.  
"Ivan..." She smiled as her emotions began to uproot. Slowly she unbuttoned his coat and took off the light blue shirt underneath that. He didn't seem to mind.  
Sheba finally snapped out of her reality and saw what she was doing.  
"Dammit..what am I doing..look I.."  
"No, you've been locked up long enough under control." He kissed her again."You're a free girl now. Do what you wish."  
She nodded and continued her work.  
"I'm surprised how fast that wound healed." She touched the scar.  
  
"You know I'm not that kind of guy." He put back on his shirt, "really Sheba..."  
"Oh...sorry!" She quickly apologized.  
"Chicks and their habits." He mumbled.  
  
"Tell me a story." She said leaning awkwardly against his shoulder.  
  
"A story!?" Ivan thought. "Sheba is turning into some kind of psycho."  
  
"Okay...." Ivan started. " There was once a Jupiter adept. He was very experienced and intelligent. He had sensed trouble in the kingdom of Tolbi and decided to make the journey there from the Gondowan cave. There was a certain person he had been waiting to catch. He snuck into the palace and got her. She was an old friend of his and they both escaped. She happened to be very good in her psynergy and together they fought off the many guards and soldiers that came upon them. It was a cold rainy night and the only shelter was a small little cave. She seemed to fall in love with her old friend, but the other Jupiter adept thought the opposite. It was like that for many days. Then they venture up to the mountains to find the way home."  
  
"What were their names?" She asked.  
  
"You'll see." He whispered. "Then they met up with another person living on the mountain. He had some snow jackets that were very warm. They bought them and stayed there for the night. Then in the morning they went all the way up. It was getting colder and colder. There was a warm pool of water nearby so the girl went into it. The Jupiter adept, thought she had already gotten out and was also in the same pool of water. The girl misunderstood and slapped him. An argument developed like a small storm, but it died away shortly after. So..."  
  
"I think I heard this story before, keep going." Sheba yawned.  
"So..everything was happy again. As they reached the high peak of the mountain, a powerful snowstorm emerged and almost killed them. A log cabin was nearby and a friend of long living came out to rescue them out of the snow, see their psynergy burning like the light of the four lighthouses. They were okay and the next day with their friend, went to the short cut he suggested to use. It was an ambush. The two Jupiter adepts were captured and sentenced to be return to Tolbi to receive their fate. The long living friend escaped and saved them. With some creatures they had stolen from the Tolbi government. They escaped outside and went down the mountain side trail. Upon doing that, they met up with another person, she too also stole a creature from the Tolbi Government and promised to help them go through the dangerous pass that laid ahead of them."  
  
He looked down at Sheba, but she was already asleep.  
"That must have been a boring story, even sleep is more entertaining." He tucked her in.  
  
"I'll sleep here too. She never told me to leave." Ivan thought, tucking himself in along with Sheba. "I hope she won't drool on me like last time." Ivan looked at her, "she still is beautiful, just like I dreamed her to be." He kissed her cheek, "Sweet dreams Sheba." 


	15. Suhalla Pass

Chapter 15: Suhalla Pass  
A/N: lol I didn't get any reviews for the last chapter . . . I must have really scared some people off! Don't worry I'm under control now.  
The dew of the trees shone in the cool pine air. The sun had already risen for yet, another day. The forest was lively with birds. Their sweet songs filled the morning and Morimachi's ears.  
"Ugh . . . why couldn't she keep her mouth closed when she is sleeping?" Ivan woke up to find his part of the pillow wet from Sheba's drooling. At least it wasn't that much as last time. He clean himself up.  
  
"Hey it's time to get up lazy." Ivan shook her and enclosed his hand onto her cheek.  
  
"MMMMMMMMMM....PH!" Sheba turned her body away from Ivan to catch on last z.  
"Stubborn." Ivan said in her ear, "You leave me with no other choice."  
Sheba growled softly, "It's too early to get up."  
"This will do." Ivan turned Sheba right back over to face him. He began to leave a trail of kisses around her neck. She didn't like that too much.  
  
"Fine. I'll get up." She sneered and gave Ivan a shocking jolt on his arm.  
"That was uncalled for." Ivan had that mischievous grin on. "Take this!"  
He tackled and pushed her playfully. She laughed and threw a pillow at his face. As a result the two fell off the bed laughing.  
  
"Sheba then froze, "I hope no one heard that, you better go off to your room so no one suspects that you were in here."  
  
"Because of last night?"  
  
"Don't make me repeat myself...off you go now."  
  
"Right!" Ivan got up, "we got a lot of traveling to do today..be ready." He kissed her the cheek.  
"Ohayo gozai!...Sheba?" Jan opened the door..unlocking it from the outside. She saw Ivan in the room with her.  
"Hey breakfast will be done in ten minutes! Be sure not to forget!" She announced.  
"We'll be there!"  
"Okie dokie!' She closed the door to wonder what happened in that room just now.  
"Did he just get into there this morning...or did he...stay in there overnight?" She thought walking toward her room. She had found Picard standing around by her door.  
  
  
"Have you seen Ivan? He asked. "I checked his room and he wasn't there!"  
  
"Try opening Sheba's door to find out." Jan giggled a little.  
"Why did you catch them doing something they shouldn't be doing?"  
"No..not really, I think I saw Ivan making out with in her in there..."  
"Interesting, no wonder they acted strange around each other...he, Felix won't like the sound of this."  
  
"Unless you don't tell him."  
  
"Best not to if that's the case."  
  
"Just don't say anything about them..or make insults when they come out of there, don't make me bring out my gauntlets."  
  
"Oh now you're threatening me?"  
  
"No, but I still can't get into my room with someone standing in front of it." She tapped him. He got out of the way.  
  
"Breakfast is done you guys!" Marle ran up the stairs, "Get it while it's hot!"  
"We'll be down! Let's go captain!"  
  
"But what about.." Picard pointed to Sheba's door.  
  
"Don't worry about them, come on Marle has breakfast waiting." Jan grabbed his arm and dragged it. "You are not going to eavesdrop on them!  
Soon after they went downstairs, Sheba peeked out of the door.  
"They're gone, we can go now." She said. "But I'm hungry!"  
"Same here...who cares what they say." Ivan persuaded, "Come on, I smell breakfast."  
  
Sheba was very nervous when going down the stairs. Would they say anything? When she went to go eat, no one said anything about this morning's incident. Not even silently. After breakfast was eaten, everyone packed up and head into the Suhalla Valley.   
  
Nothing was in sight of the Suhalla passage. It looked peaceful. Plants grew on the sides of the cliffs and grass on the sides of the road. It   
was also very quiet.  
  
"Be extremely careful around here." Jan warned, "It may not look like nothings here, but the monsters are waiting in ambush.   
  
"We can handle monsters, what is it so dangerous for us?"  
  
"They come from a future era. They have the better advantage. "You're luckily I came from that same era and know their weaknesses." She pulled out a strange device. It had a strange silver handle and a gun like appearance.  
  
"It's small..how could it do any damage!?" Picard took the gun to look at it and accidentally pulled the trigger.  
  
  
"Duck!!" Jan moved his hand upwards to prevent him from shooting Ivan, who had ducked. The gun let out a big BANG!  
The Oradons freaked out because of the loud sound. The adepts were also feeling the same. They looked at it as if it was a weapon of the gods.  
  
"I don't want to be near that thing." Sheba didn't dare touch it. "What do they call that..loud thing?"  
It's called a gun. G. U. N. It can sometimes kill someone in one blow like what Picard almost did to Ivan. She glared at Picard, "think of it as a bow and arrow, but better and stronger. She explained more about the gun.  
"So what it does will defect the monsters around here?" Ivan asked.  
  
"Yup and when they get hit, they go BAKOOOM!" Jan shot out and hit a strange creature jumping toward them. The bullet struck the metal lizard-like organism. The bullet released a virus which defected the chips implanted in the body. It malfunctioned and shut down.  
  
"They are made of...some type and really strong armor, but how?" Ivan took a piece of the dead lizard.  
"Could Babi be involved of letting these creature loose?" Sheba thought.  
  
The lizards were a little larger than regular elemental lizards. They were not armed with explosives, fortunately. The only thing you had to watch for was the metal sharp plates erecting out of its back and shoulder blades. There were also the regular claws and teeth, only to be made of metal  
  
"Those claws are worse than the animal girl's claws." Picard mumbled. He did not like to imagine the injuries from those strange creatures.  
  
"I can handle the lizards and take them down ahead as long as they don't get into attacking range of me. Back me up..got it?"  
  
"YEAH!" The three adepts said together.  
  
She raced ahead, shooting off the lizards off the cliffs and the road. She shot accurately good. The hard thing was loading in the ammo. It took a few minutes to fully prepare and lock and load. That's when the other three came in, distracting them and slashing the metal of their bodies. Maybe the armor wasn't so tough after all.  
Then an unexpected large group of the lizards circled them. They growled and hissed, waiting to tear the intruders apart.  
  
"Great..." she mumbled, "Be ready!"  
All djinn were being organized quickly. Sheba had put Gale, Aroma, Blitz, and Breath on standby. Ivan took out Kite, Squall, Zephyr and Smog. Picard's djinn, Eddy, Shade, Spring, and Chill were ready to fight.  
  
"Zephyr go!" The djinn was used and they party's agility increased. With the help from Mellow, the psynergy power within them became highly   
stronger.  
"Spark plasma!" Ivan began to shock the robot lizards, it didn't effect them.  
"No good, try water!" Sheba suggested.  
"Tsunami!" Picard sent a rasping wave of water toward the lizards. To protect the others from the surrounding wave, Shade cast a water barrier. The lizards were stunned from the water.  
  
"I'll try again now." Ivan used spark plasma a second time. It shocked them effectively and left them destroyed. But another lizard jump out   
from a cliff. It shook the ground as it landed. The thing was huge, and it was equipped with strange weapons from the future. It roared out, glaring at the trouble makers.  
  
"Kinzokuruu.." Jan hissed and glared her teeth at it. "I've been waiting so long to destroy and kick the crap out of you! She shot at its head.   
She shifted to the right to dodge its missile attack. It blew off part of the canyon, making a rock slide. Kinzokuruu's eyes shifted into bright orange pupils.   
  
"It's psynergy defense is down...hit it with everything you got!" Jan yelled, looking into the creatures eyes. The three adepts attacked at the   
same time using the strongest psynergy spells they knew. As it was hit, the eyes turned back to being blood shot. Its psynergy defense went up again and it's physical defense plunging down.  
  
"Keep distracting it, I need to figure out something!" Ivan said, trying to study the robot.  
Ivan shot a ray at it's eyes to stun it from the flashing light. It received light damage.  
"Psynergy isn't effective when it's eyes are red, use weapon attacks!" Ivan realized.  
"I can use some backup someone!" Jan was dodging machine guns that were very close to hitting her. "I'm getting shot at!"  
"Mist." Sheba covered the whole area with deep fog.  
That gave Jan a chance to slice some of Kinzokuruu's equipment off. It wasn't made to   
have sharp eyes. It swung it's tail back and forth aimlessly, hoping to hit something. The Oradons were knocked over and ran a short distance   
away from the horrible unknown creature. Kinzokuruu turned around to shoot a laser beam out of it's mouth. It missed entirely and hit a cliff a few hundred yards away. There was a loud explosion as it fell apart and crumbled.  
"It can't see through the fog." Picard aimed at it's left arm and sliced it. "Cut off the left arm."  
The plated metal was hard to cut through. Picard chopped at it while Ivan sliced out the wires. Sheba kept the fog going and Jan kept it from moving by stunning it with a blast from the virus bullets. To help weaken to monster, Blitz and Gale attacked. Blitz successfully left   
the right arm paralyzed with a strong bolt. Gale nearly blew the robot off it's feet. Than Jan began to shoot the other arm. It was harder to attack because it would start attacking everywhere, trying to protect itself.  
"Giga Bolt!" Sheba released a powerful bolt into Ivan's blade. It became fully charge with electricity. He concentrated on the blade. The mighty Asura was released and with the extra power Sheba added ti the sword, Ivan was able to slice Kinzokuruu in half. It felled there, intending to go off. (BAKOOOOOOOOOOM)!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
"Get out of here!" Jan yelled, running and jumping on her nearby Oradon. "It's going to explode!"  
"Over here hurry!" Picard whistled to the Oradons that came rushing toward them. "Hop on!"  
He grouped up with Ivan and Sheba as the giant creature began flashing non stop. A few seconds later, it exploded loudly and the ground shook violently.   
Most of the canyon was gone after the loud crashes. The air filled with the dust of dirt and falling rock. It teamed almost everything up in the pass.  
  
"I don't want to fight anything like that again." Sheba wiped off the sweat on her face.  
"The wasn't the real one, the real Kinzokuruu and never explode."  
"So...that one was just a fake!?" Picard sighed, where did the real one go?"  
"I last saw it three weeks ago, I guess it went off somewhere else."  
"This place is weird, I want to get out of here." Ivan didn't want to fight the strange new monsters. "Looks like the exit is clear even after that   
large explosion."  
  
They went down the almost destroyed stairs and down to a patchy field of sand. The Venus Lighthouse was in view. Though the lighthouse itself faced the Eastern Sea. 


	16. The Laliverian Apocalypse

Chapter 16: The Laliverian Apocalypse  
A/N: Hey where did all my nice audience of reviewers go!? *cries*  
The tower looked like it was about to fall into the sea. Its bottom base was supported by rock and earth. It stood almost a few yards from the sea below. Maybe the rock kept the lighthouse in place. You could see the yellow flame that now lighted the night sky like a midnight sun. The ground was still unstable, shaking the area with small growling earthquakes. The small forest of fruit bearing trees remained even after the ground being tore up by the last two years' lighting of the lighthouse. From Sheba's view, she could tell she was getting closer and closer to her home. She had missed her people. She was tired of traveling and sleeping on the dirty ground almost every night. But wasn't everyone? Jan didn't sleep on the floor at all. She would climb a tree and fall asleep inside its arms. Ivan and Picard would call her a monkey. She knew that they were always doing that. She didn't care much, not as much as Sheba did. Every now and then Jan would attack them playfully like a cub.  
  
It reminded Ivan about the events that took place here. Picard had no idea of this place. He had only seen it when he was sailing on his Lemurian ship. He had only been in the few areas of Gondowan and Angara. He looked up at it, it looked like it was bigger than the other lighthouses.  
"I've seen taller buildings than this one." Jan remarked.  
"Taller?" Sheba doubted her. "But the lighthouses are the tallest buildings anywhere in Weyard."  
"Not here, but where I originally came from. Don't ask me for details now. You'll find out yourself."  
"Not unless I just.." Ivan went to read her mind, only to find it filled with other thoughts.  
"You won't find out by reading my mind you cheater." Jan calmly said, but growled at him loudly afterwards.  
Ivan snorted, "Lalivero is just around the corner almost." Ivan looked at his map. "We can make it there in about an hour."  
"Then what are we waiting for? I must rescue my people!" Sheba urged to go on as fast as possible.  
  
"It's almost sundown. We better get a move on." Picard looked up at the pink orange sky. Clouds in with the last of the suns light, making it looked like a bright pinkish purple. The land was unusually empty. No monsters, animals, or people anywhere. The day now turned into night from the hour passing.  
"There's something really strange going on..." Picard sniffed the air.  
"It smells a lot like smoke...something is burning!" Jan noticed bright flames blazing nearby. She guided their eyes to it.  
  
"No...it..couldn't possibly be...Sheba's eyes began to water. She got off her Oradon and ran toward the blaze and disappeared into the darkness.  
"Sheba!" Ivan ran after her.  
"Come on we gotta follow!" Jan pulled the Oradons reins to follow.  
"Babi...." Picard cursed under his breath.  
Sheba was down on her knees, crying as hard as she ever did in her life. Her home, friends, family...gone. If she had only been there to protect them, they would be still alive. She blamed herself deeply, as now she had no where to go. The Laliverio River flowed and reflected the bright engulfing flames of the fire. She tried to help put it out by summoning the strongest rainstorm she could make. She concentrated for a few moments. The psynergy she was storing was soon released. Tears of sorrow and anger mixed together as the sky became dark and rumbling with thunder. Ivan came behind her, panting from the long run.  
"Sheba..I.."  
"Exactly like yesterdays vision.." She choked and sobbed. "Help me take out the fire."  
He nodded and contributed his power into the developing storm. As soon as he finished, rain began pouring down in buckets as it drenched the fire. Now the only light lighting up the sky was the constant flashing streaks of lightning. It became harder for Jan and Picard to find them. "Where did they go? The fire was showing us the way there..until it gone out." Jan tried igniting a torch, but it went out. "Are we lost?"  
"Sheba must have summoned this storm. It came out if nowhere." Picard said, looking worried. "Maybe Ivan helped her out, let's try going this way."  
"But didn't we just go that way?"  
"I don't know. It's too dark and too rainy to light a torch, or see where we are going. We can't give up the search!"  
"Why did it have to end this way?" She couldn't fight back the depressing emotions that pressured her down. She fell into Ivan's shoulder and snuggled into his sleeve.  
"Sheba..I'm truly sorry..." He embraced her. "Babi will truly pay for this traumatic ordeal."  
"Don't mention his name," she growled. Her eyes were infuriated with anger. The angelic emerald eyes were no longer soft. They now looked like a hurricane was rampaging inside. Her eyes seemed to glow with red rather than green.  
"We'll find him. He must be inside his lighthouse."  
"Correct." Sheba's aura suddenly appeared, glowing in the colors of amethyst, pearl, and a cloudy grey. The environment began changing to match her current emotional status. There was less rain now, but the lightning became more severe. It looked like she could control every bolt that was flashing.  
"Where are Jan and Picard? I hope they didn't get lost." Ivan was soaked to the bone from the cold rain. He shivered and hugged Sheba for warmth.  
"We will see them when the time comes. I have to settle this alone with Babi himself."  
I won't let you go alone! Not without me..."  
"This has nothing to do with you! This was my fault that this happened.  
"Babi is the one who caused this. Therefore, it isn't any of your fault!"  
"Fine, but we have no time to waste." Sheba got up running toward the burned town that was once Lalivero.  
"Wait Sheba...you got really emotional back there. You sure you're going to be all right?"  
"I'll be fine for now."  
"If you feel the need to cry at anytime, do it. I'll be there for you." He cupped her cheek and kissed her.  
"I feel like this will be our last...I don't want to die early." Sheba said to him while mind reading.  
She fully kissed him, more passionately that she had ever done. She got even closer to him because she was freezing since her clothes were also soaked from the rain.  
"We have a demon to take care of, let's not waste any more time. We can always do that later." Ivan separated from her.  
She closed her eyes and nodded. The Babi Lighthouse was shrouded in evil darkness. It was finished, but now it was to be destroyed.  
"Let's get going. I want to get even now."  
  
To their surprise, no one was even guarding the place. It's interior sure hadn't changed. In just a few minutes, they found the door that would lead them to the one person who Sheba hated the most.  
"Good luck, if anything happens, to one or both of us, just remember the good times we had." Ivan pulled out his Kikuichimonji blade, ready to strike.  
"We won't die, I will not allow it!" She took out her storm mace. She broke through the wooden door. He was there alright. He look liked he was already dead. His body was chained up and appeared to be floating. His red eyes shot out to look at the two little Jupiter adepts, armed with weapons.  
"There's my little girl. Do you like how I "rearranged" your nice little town? He laughed evilly.  
"He laughs at his own jokes." Ivan whispered to Sheba.  
"I was expecting you to come..and the thief who took her from me!"  
"Shut up you stupid old man!" Sheba was at it again, "You're the one who stole me in the first place!" "And you need to die again!"  
  
"You DARE insult me in my own lair!? His mind screamed. Strong pure telepathic waves struck out at her. She yelled loudly dropping to the floor.  
"You leave her alone!" Ivan sent luff to seal his psynergy. It refused to do it so Ivan used Bind.  
"You think your djinn and psynergy is going to work on me? My power is highly more powerful than that."  
"No..dammit.. DIE!!!!" Ivan came at him much faster than the wind. He struck his blade into his heart to try and kill him.  
"Little brat." His mind painfully struck out. Then he started to laugh, a real creepy laugh.  
"I love playing with new toys." Babi crackled. Then with a strange unknown power he made a clone of Ivan appear. It looked exactly like him, but more evil in a way.  
"No..dammit.. DIE!!!!" The clone shouted, going after Ivan the exact same way that he did to Babi just seconds earlier.  
"Don't leave me." Sheba looked up to see what was happening. She began crying again, knowing that one blow to the heart is fatal. She watched his own blood seep down from his puncture. She crawled to him, the psychic waves that hit her just about paralyzed her.  
"Ivan..." she whispered his name. she hugged his body, the warm feeling was gone. His blood covered her hands and her face.  
  
"My psynergy is keeping my spirit inside, Sheba I don't have much long in here." Remarkably he had some psynergy left to keep him alive for just a few seconds. He could only speak to her through mind read.  
"Why are you going to leave like this, don't die on me." She replied back. (I sound so dramatic!)  
" I don't want to leave you...I just have enough psynergy to say short goodbye, Sheba I love you." Ivan said his last as his psynergy dried out.  
Sheba didn't mean what he meant by a "short goodbye. She knew she would have to face Babi by herself. She stayed and cried into Ivan's body until Babi boomed out.  
"Are you done mourning like a crybaby over a waste of life?" Babi laughed again. Ivan was right about him laughing at his own jokes.  
"Why..." Sheba's anger became uncontrollable. "Why did you do that you evil demon!" She began cursing at him with red eyes.  
"No need for such behavior my child. He laughed again. "No one will save you now."  
Sheba didn't listen. She roared after him, using physical and lightning attacks.  
"I guess you want to die too eh? I don't need your worthless life anyway." He raised a finger to her, freezing her in place. He moved a razor-sharp dagger toward her cheek. He sliced through her cheek to make and "X" scar appear. She began whimpering in pain.  
"I hope you enjoy a internal sleep Sheba. A slow and painful one. That's what you need Sheba. He picked her up out of the air and threw her hard to the ground, making her break a few bones. She couldn't speak. It was much too painful to perform the simple task. He continued to slam her, making her break her arms and legs so she couldn't move. With a swipe of the dagger, Babi bleeding cuts all over her body. She screamed in her mind, hoping it would help the pain. She couldn't use her djinn to help her. They were still in recovery. She felt her own blood leaking out of her and drenching her clothes. All the sudden, her world went black.  
A/N: MUAHAHAHAHA! I feel so evil now. 


	17. Broken Spirits

Chapter 17: Broken Spirits  
A/N: The story now gets a little supernatural! I love that stuff.  
  
Sheba found herself stuck in a small dungeon cell. It was very filthy with rats and spiders and everything else that Sheba feared. It was also   
very cold. She stayed where she was and cried. She was unable to move from her broken bones and injuries. She tired to sleep, but pain kept her awake. She imagined herself being with her family again, by the nice warm winter fire. Lavlivero was hot all year, but on winter nights it was very cold. She dreamed of food and water since she was getting hungry again. And her friends especially, they fought together to save  
Wayard. As she though deeper about them, she thought of Ivan. What happened to him? Where was he now? The questions haunted her   
mind. Will the others find out she had been locked up? And Ivan, will they find out he was killed? Thinking about that made her feel depressed.She managed to fall asleep and live next day and night without food, water, or freedom from pain.  
She felt a warm touch to her shivering body. She didn't know if she was dreaming or not. It felt nice to be warm again. Her body had been   
freezing in cold temperatures. She also began feeling sick with sorrow. That touch, it felt so...so soothing and calming. She couldn't feel   
any broken bones in her body. She saw what is was. It was like a blue aura wrapping around her, almost like arms. Sheba scanned the   
mysterious figure further more. The sweet violet eyes gave its identity away.  
"Is..that you Ivan?" She said softly.  
"It is."  
She fell into the spirit who was holding her. He felt so real and alive to her.  
"Why hasn't your spirit left Weyard yet?" Sheba asked, feeling a lot of her fear disappearing.  
"I did leave Weyard, but I have to do deal with unfinished business here."  
"Rescuing me again?"  
"I want to, but you would have to also be dead, like me." He said sadly.  
"Well can't you take me out of my misery at least?"  
"Um..", Ivan said to her mind, "I don't know about that, you look pretty close to dying."  
"I could try losing a lot of blood by opening my flesh wounds, but right now I'm too tired."  
" I'll stay here until you fall asleep, just remember this is only a dream." The spirit made Sheba fall asleep. He hugged her and disappeared   
into thin air.  
Sheba awakened up a few hours later to find that she could move again. She felt no pain at all and all her wounds were gone. She also didn't feel the urge of hunger or thirst. More surprisedly, her djinn were still with her as usual. Babi hadn't taken them.  
  
"Oh my gods!" She looked at her bleeding corpse on the floor. It was her damaged body. The rats and bugs begin to raid the corpse. She   
shuddered and took a step out of the jail cell. She had died a horrible death so she was stuck forever haunting Babi's lighthouse. Maybe she could try and escape out of the window. It was a long way down, but ghosts can fly right?  
"Here goes nothing." She jumped out. She couldn't fly out, but instead she fell into another one of the dark vortexes.  
She was face to face with Babi again. He must have known about her escape plan.  
"So my child has finally come out of hiding?" Babi grabbed her by the arm. "Now the real fun can begin."  
"No, let me go!" Sheba tried to break her struggle out of his arms. She even pulled out a spark plasma at him, but all it did was make him  
laugh.  
"You weakling." He threw her into a glass container. She didn't contain her human form anymore. Her spirit had become a sphere of blue and   
white. She was trapped in an eternal cage that Babi had been preparing. The cage had a terrible effect on her. Slowly, it was thrashing her   
spirit apart. She had no idea what was going on outside the glass, the world inside the glass cage was dark, and filled with demons that had   
been in the cage long before her. She had to hide from them. Fighting would drive out more demons. So she stayed where she was, shaking   
uncontrollably behind a wall.  
  
"This way, she's trapped inside!" Procne called out to Ivan quietly, "did you bring the stun bunnies?"  
"I got it right here, cover me." He handed the bag full of tiny monster dust bunnies. "Atalanta should be here any time now."  
"Babi it is time for your evil to end!" Atalanta appeared, fully armed with her bow. She shot them at him. At the same time, the dust bunnies   
were released as they seal some of the barriers Babi was using to defend himself with.  
"What the.." Babi had no idea what hit him.   
Ivan sliced opened the glass cage where the Sheba's spirit was trapped in. He took the orb in his hands and it began to morph into human   
form again. She looked lifeless, even for a spirit. He ran out with her into a portal that he created.  
"Let's break." Procne looked over to Atalanta. They both disappeared into thin air. The stun bunnies blocked out Babi's eyes, making it hard to   
see who was there. He had a feeling it was one of the goddesses from the spirit world. His power matched their strength.  
  
"They may have gotten away this time, but they will be in for a big surprise once they come back." Babi said to himself, killing off the dust   
bunny swarms in the thousands.  
  
Sheba felt like she had been in years pure darkness, remembering her horrific experience. Where was she? The air around her felt good. It   
wasn't cold like the air around Babi's lighthouse. She had awakened to find herself in a soft bed of flowers in the middle of a pond full of lilie pads. She looked scanned the area.  
  
"I don't think we're in Weyard any more." She whispered to her djinn, who happen to be nearby.  
"You're awake." Atalanta sensed the girl's awakening.  
Sheba turned her head. "I've seen you before......" She walked across the water to meet up with the spirit. "Please, tell me why and what I  
doing here."  
Atalanta giggled, "Sheba, you're one of us now."  
"You mean..I'm."  
"Living in the afterlife."  
"Where's Ivan?" She asked, "is he here?"  
"He's running around somewhere nearby." She then pointed to the water, "but I think you should get a good look at yourself first.  
Sheba looked down at her reflection in the water. She didn't look like the Sheba she was. Her hair was longer which reached down to the   
bottom of her back. She was wearing strange clothing. The symbol of Jupiter centered her heart to attached her robe. Her dark purple silk robe descended all the way to the ground. Mostly, thin layers of light violet silk covered her.  
  
"Nice isn't it?" Atalanta complimented.  
"It's very nice, but how will I find Ivan in such a big place?"  
"Follow your heart."  
Sheba set out on her first adventure in the spirit world. The world wasn't much different from Wayard. The only nice thing was nothing   
attacked her in the fields. She began to pick up on a melody. She was lured to the beautiful music. As she got closer, the music became   
louder.... 


	18. Fox of the Moon

Chapter 18: Fox of the Moon  
  
A/N: Fiddlesticks, I had too much to do these last three weeks..sorry for the long update!  
  
"Here you are Ivan, dead at 17." Ivan mumbled in his head. He wasn't concentrating on his flute playing so he missed a note or two on a song that he was working on. He found a comfortable spot to lay his back onto on a tree and continued playing. He tried not to think about the people he loved and left behind.  
  
"Rescue, what direction is the music coming from?" Sheba asked, looking around.  
The djinni flew into a northeast direction leaving a bright trail of lilac psynergy. She followed him through some tall grasses and a few rocks.  
"Thanks Breath." She hugged the djinn and embedded him back into her soul. She walked slowly toward the willow tree she then began to jog a little faster. She tripped over a rock sticking out of the ground and fell flat on her face.  
  
"What was that?" Ivan looked across the grass to see what made all that noise. He jumped into the grass, "Hey...Sheba are you..All right?" He helped the girl up.   
"Ivan...." Her eyes began to water as she embraced him.  
" I can still feel the same pain from your last dream." Ivan could feel a negative power that began to grow bigger inside her. He knew it was still small enough to be taken out permanently.  
"I'm really sorry what happened back there." He hugged her close.  
"I don't want to think about it" She said, lowering her head.  
"I can tell your spirit is broken. I can mend that for you." He placed his hands on her shoulders. " I know the perfect place."  
"Take me there."  
"Falcon!" Ivan whistled. A mighty gryphon appeared from the sky. Its mane was silver along with its giant wings. It beared the crest to protect its eyes and head. She landed on the grass, making it blow fiercely.  
"How did you get this gryphon?" She looked up at it.  
"Falcon was a gift for me. I'll explain more about her later." He scratched Falcon's head and climbed on. Sheba never rode a gryphon before.  
"To the Sakura Forest Falcon." He commanded her, "quickly now."  
Falcon started to take off. Her mighty wings beat the ground with wind. Sheba wrapped her arms tightly around Ivan, she felt like she was going to fall off already.  
"It won't take long, hang on Sheba!" Ivan shouted over the beating wings of Falcon. She took off to the skies, leaving the ground down below.  
"I don't like being this high," Sheba looked down at the clouds, "I might fall!"  
"You won't fall." Ivan chuckled, "unless I.."  
Ivan commanded Falcon to perform a flip in the air.  
"IVAN!!!!!!" Sheba shouted, hanging on to him for dear life. @.@  
"Ah, come on Sheba." He turned his head back to look at a rather dizzy eyed Sheba. " That's nothing compared to our sky dive!"  
Ivan purposely jumped off of Falcon's back. Sheba began to freak out as she saw him flip around. But as soon as Ivan fell far down, Falcon dived down at an incredible speed, and caught him with her back.  
"Good girl." Ivan gave Falcon a treat. "You really should try that sometime with me!"  
"Don't scare me like that!"  
"You're scared of everything. Spiders, large owls, bugs, wolf people." Ivan continued.  
"So what if I don't like those things!" Sheba said, laughing. "At least I'm not afraid of talking trees."  
"Hey! I am not afraid of talking trees!" Ivan said, arguing back playfully. "We're here, land Falcon!"  
  
The gryphon landed smoothly and gracefully onto the ground. Sheba got down to look at the place. The forest was filled with cherry blossom trees, there was a small river nearby, partly filled with blossom petals. Falcon had disappeared, waiting until the next time she will be summoned.  
"Is this it?" Sheba turned to Ivan. "Sakura Forest?"  
"What other place would it be?" Ivan took her by the hand. "Now shall we stroll along?"  
"Sure." Sheba smiled, " to where?"  
"There should be a nice place just up the river."   
"What will you do to me?" She asked suddenly after five minutes of silence.  
"Cure you of a broken spirit of course!" He looked at her, "why, do you not feel trust toward me?"  
"It's not that I don't trust you or anything." Sheba shook her head. "I just want to know what will happen."  
"It is nothing that will hurt you." Ivan picked off a blossom petal off her hair.  
"If you say so...." Sheba went along with him.  
  
A giant tree stood in the middle of all the small cherry blossom trees. It's great branch arms spread out like its roots that were far under the deep ground. Its massive size shaded a large portion of the area.The bark of the tree had a glowing symbol carved into the heart of it. Nearby grass was covered in the soft petals of this tree, leaving a soft surface to sit on. Ivan took her to the tree and told her to place her left hand onto on side of the tree. Then he put his right hand on the other side of the tree.  
"Ok Sheba, cover the symbol of the tree with your hand." He guided his hand to hers. "Just close your eyes and relax. All your sorrow will depart from your spirit into the tree.  
She followed the instructions without a word. Both of them didn't speak up for a long time. Sheba felt much of her sadness disappear from her and into the giant tree. Once she felt every ounce of negative energy out of her system, she finally opened her eyes back open again.  
  
"Feel better?"  
"It seemed to have worked." She looked up at the tree, finding a good size recluse crawling down from it.  
"EAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" She shrieked as the recluse came in direct view of her. She quickly scrambled near another tree.  
"Ivan, don't let that thing near me!!" Sheba whined.  
"It's nothing but nice little recluse, isn't that right?" Ivan petted the Recluse and let it crawl on his arm, "she isn't going to bite you."  
"But..but Recluses are slimy and icky!" She said when behind the tree. She suddenly felt a hairy creepy leg touch her head. She looked up and another Recluse appeared.  
Sheba screamed even louder than the first time. This time she tried to run away, only to trip over a fuzzy ball.  
"Are you alright?" Ivan put the recluse back and got her back up and her feet.  
"You should see what you tripped over." Ivan pointed out the creature who was standing there. The creature was about a foot tall. It's eyes were dark and big, used for seeing at night. A tail of soft black tipped feathers touched the floor. Soft bunny like ears stood straight up, while the other six, 3 on each side of it's face were shorter and more dull. A red gem glowed on its forehead, containing the powers of the moon. It had no arms, but long legs to bounce with.  
"It's such a cute little thing!" Sheba smiled and picked it up. The silver creature didn't look too happy. As Sheba picked it up, the creature kicked her straight into the face.  
Sheba fell back, her face red from the kick.  
"Hey, why did you do that!?" Ivan glared at the creature.  
"It's alright I'll be fine." Said a weary tear-eyed Sheba.  
The creature's mood suddenly changed again. As Sheba backed away from it, it would follow her.  
"Why should I let you follow me if you are going to hurt me?" Sheba spoke, still upset. She then picked up a signal that was coming from the creature to her mind.  
"I only did it to exchange the amount of pain you gave while you tripped over me."  
"oh, is that it?  
"Of course, but for now on, you are my master. I was sent to you as a Guardian Force." The creature replied mentally, I am Kurai, the fox of the moon."  
  
"I guess I can take along with me Kurai!" She picked up Kurai with no problem.   
"So you are taking the creature along? I thought you didn't like him."  
"Her!" Sheba corrected him, "she happens to be my Guardian Force."  
"Guardian Force..." Ivan repeated the name, "Falcon is one."  
"Ivan I feel sleepy." Sheba yawned, crawling to a pile of petals and holding onto Kurai like a stuffed animal. "I'm taking a nap."  
"The side affect of the tree therapy seems to be taking place." Ivan soon became sleepy and cuddled up into a ball next to Sheba. 


	19. Fire Clan of the North

Chapter 19: Fire Clan of the North  
A/N: I must be getting boring in my chapters again -_-(). Sorry about the 2 month delay...the past two months I have been lazy and not in a writing mood.  
"It's night already..." Ivan arose from the bed of petals. At first he didn't recognize the place due to some memory lost. He noticed it was dark around him. He tilted his head upwards toward the atmosphere. He saw a red giant planet, with a large swirling cloud within it's skin. There were other planets too. The small planet of Mercury, the brightness of Mars, and the terra cotta colored planet of Venus. Stars of various forms and types filled the gaps of the heavens. A thin ribbon of pearl rainbow light danced gracefully across along with the stars.  
  
"Just like the northern lights of Imil, but better." Ivan said to himself.  
Ivan noticed Sheba was still asleep. He chuckled a little since there was a little puddle of drool near her mouth as she mumbled in her   
sleep. He didn't see Kurai there. She must have left to wait until she was needed.  
  
"Drool face." He continue to observe her. "I better not leave her here, she'll throw a fit if I leave her.."  
He picked up the sleeping girl and made a comfortable position for her in his arms. Sheba woke up instantly.  
"Why are you carrying me? Is something wrong?"  
"I didn't want you to wake up in your own drool."  
"But I never drool in my sleep! I don't drool!"  
"It's not that I care," He set her down. "But I still wonder what you were sleep talking about."  
"That is confidential! It doesn't have anything to do with you." Sheba blushed.   
" You miss home. I heard you mumbling to your younger brother as you slept. You want the normal life you used to have with your family."  
"Absolutely right." She admitted. "But it isn't possible now."  
"Don't say that." Ivan kneeled down beside her. " I have a feeling they escaped and are safe somewhere."  
"I hope I find them...I don't want to become an orphan a second time."  
"I understand." Ivan curled up his arms to his knees. "..Do you ever wonder who your real parents are?"  
" I do... but things like these remain a mystery, even after life." Sheba sighed. " I thought Babi was supposed to be dead already, how   
could he be alive?"  
"There could have been a possible resurrection that we didn't know about. I find it strange that no one hardly noticed."  
"You're nowhere near the correct answer." A voice came from behind a tree.  
"Who's there!?"  
"Show yourself!"  
"We don't take commands from little children such as yourself." Another voice came down from the tree.  
" This should help." Sheba thought and quickly sparked up a few sparks to make light.  
"Saturos, Menardi?! What are you doing here!?" Ivan was surprised to see his old enemies again.  
"What are you two brats doing here?" Menardi asked in the familiar mean tone. " You're gonna pay for what you did to us!"  
" So you guys came out to threatened us." Sheba didn't have a weapon with her, but she picked up a nearby stick and raised pointed the   
  
stick at them. " I'm not afraid anymore to fight!"  
" We don't have time to pick a fight against weaklings." Saturos commented, revealing his body into the moonlight and out of the shadows.   
  
" The one that you call "Babi" is not Babi at all."  
"What do you mean, explain more." Ivan stood his guard in case if any suspicious moves are performed.  
  
"The demon that killed you is known as the Feebas he feeds on nothing but psynergy. When psynergy is used at any present time, he   
grows stronger and it is impossible to attack. Feebas is also trying to get a hold of the spirit world as well as Weyward." Menardi   
explained. " He may be identical with Babi's physical qualities, but overall he is not the real one." Menardi swung her scythe into the ground. "In exchange of the information you received, we want to fight you to avenge our death."  
  
"Bring it on then." Ivan had unsheathed a sword that was given to him earlier. It's silver blade flashed and glared a mirror glimpse at its   
opponents.   
"Where is Kurai when you need her.." Sheba was unarmed, but her psynergy proved as a good weapon. She took in all her djinn on standby.  
  
" I am here in your soul, I sense that my power is needed again." The pearl colored fox warped from out the air. It stared fiercely at the Fire Adepts.  
  
"I see you have new powers yourself, they will not aid you much!" Saturos swung a fire sword at Ivan with much strength.  
  
"Force Seal!" Menardi created a symbol of Force onto the Gryphon and onto the moon fox. The seal made them unable to aid their   
companions in battle. Ivan wasn't fast enough to block the flames of the sword. He flung into the grass, feeling pain. Ivan tried to attack again, using djinn, psynergy, and attacks of all sorts. He and Sheba received more wounds then what they gave as a team.  
  
"Hey that's not fair!" Sheba cried out as she tried to pull a spark plasma on them with the last of her psynergy. " Why do you attack when   
we are unarmored!?"  
  
" That is your problem for not being prepared, you should have known!" Menardi sliced her scythe at Sheba. Her swiftness was able to leave her just a scratch.  
Ivan wiped off the blood from his lip. " I'm not giving up."  
  
" They are not worth fighting Menardi, let it go for now." Saturos rolled his eyes, " They are far too weak right now."  
"We shall them meet again then." Menardi licked the blood off her scythe. "You brats better be prepared next time."   
A sudden flash of smoke and fire engulfed them as they disappeared to where ever they were to go.  
  
"Are you okay?" Sheba took Breath and Kurai and did her best to her the wounds Ivan receive. " I don't understand why they had to be so ruthless."  
  
"Bunch of jerks they are." Ivan snorted and called for Falcon. " Falcon, take us to the Ailment Springs."  
" She really gave me a scratch." Sheba began to take clean cloth from her dress and wrap it around her gash on her arm. " It doesn't seem   
so painful though.."  
" We should be able to rest up on the way." Ivan helped her get onto Falcon's back. " Maybe the spirits can handle the problem as well."  
" A possible way to get them to stop." Sheba closed her eyes.  
  
A/N: I know I know...it's been awhile...I should update more now...it's just that I'm am running dry of ideas in this area. Any of your ideas   
are greatly accepted. I also did some slight editing to the whole story to try and make it more game based. 


	20. Another adventure begins! The search for...

Chapter 20: Another adventure begins! The search for the spirit world!  
"I can't break through the barrier!" Picard used Megacool consecutive times to try and break off the seal which lead into the Babi Lighthouse.   
For three days, they had searched around the clock all over the areas surrounding nearby Lalivero. No trace of a single sign of them came up.  
" What if they are in there as prisoners!?" Jan foolishly slashed into the barrier, giving herself a shock of dark energy. She growled in pain   
and got up again. "We ha..ve..to rescue them!!!" A giant fireball emerged from her hands. With rage, she threw it at the barrier, which gave   
no effect to it.  
  
"It's no use, maybe we should go call upon my buddies up in Vale." Picard Suggested. "We won't be able to break it open with just two   
people."  
  
"You have not found the truth of their fate that I see." The brown hair man approached them. His earthen blue eyes swore allegiance to the   
Venus elementals. He wasn't tall nor short. His physical abilities seem to be weak, but the mind and spirit abilities were overflowing with   
psynergy.  
  
"Who are you?" Picard turned his head to see who was speaking directly at him. " What do you know about Ivan and Sheba's disappearance?"  
  
"He knows them?" Jan blinked. " Wait...what is your name may I ask?"  
  
"Robin, mage of the Earth." Robin took a bow, " No need to introduce yourself as I already know you, Picard, Jan."  
  
"I'm assuming you are like Ivan. You use mind read all the time." Jan complimented. "How come you are an Earth Adept, but you know how to mind read people?"  
  
"Simple, I gain exposure to different kinds of elements from the location where I have originated." Robin explained, "Anyhow, I must give   
you the important message of the whereabouts of your destined friends."  
  
"Please tell us so." Picard set down his weapon.  
  
"Feeba's power has killed them. Inside the Babi Lighthouse, they had a battle with the demon. Unfortunately, psynergy seemed to affect the power of his strength. Enough psynergy was used on him to make him virtually impossible to hurt him. Ivan's attack backfired on him, and he wasn't able to recover from it. Sheba was still alive, as Feebas wanted to use the last of her power that was hidden deep within her soul. He tortured her to the point of death so her spirit will not rest peacefully. This would make it much easier for Feebas to find and take her power that is a delicacy and vital to his strength. A successful rescue mission was carried out by spirit of Ivan himself, along with allies   
from the other world. Sheba's power is safe."  
"No...then that means.." Jan said in disbelief, trying to hide away a single tear.  
"They can't......I know they are alive!" Picard shook his head. "There is no way they are dead!"  
  
"My deepest apologizes go to you." Robin said in a sad tone. "That is pure truth. All I say is that you should seek below the falls, and find a new hope for your loss."  
  
"Wait a minute...who is this Feebas? Don't you mean Babi?" Jan pushed her back on a tree curling her legs and arms up into a ball.  
"You have much to learn child, he is not Babi. Feeba's is the demon that is controlling the body."  
  
"Below the falls...is that where you are telling us to go?" Picard questioned him. "Gaia Falls is the only place that I can think of."  
" The answer to your question lies far out to the horizon, until then, farewell." Robin was gone as if he disappeared out of thin air.  
  
"I just met you guys, then two of them....are gone." Jan hid her face in her arms. " And..they can't eve.."  
" I know how it feels, but Robin said something about new hope can be found just over the horizon, and to search the Gaia Falls." Picard   
tried to persuade her that they were not dead.  
  
" You're right.." She got up and wiped her eyes off with a part of her cape. " Didn't you say earlier you had a flying ship somewhere?"  
  
"I do..but it is docked all the way near Champa.It would take days to reach it and we need to buy as much time as we can."  
  
"Hmm..I know a way." Jan thought of a certain someone who could help. " But first you need to find me a glass bottle."  
  
" Will this work?" Picard took a small bottle of sake out that was kept hidden in his coat.   
"Give me that!" Jan took it out of his hands and began drinking all of it.  
  
"Hey! That's my..sake!" Picard took it from her again. "Besides, little girls like you shouldn't be drinking this." He drank the rest.  
"Don't you drink all!" She took it again. "Now, do you want me to have my idea fulfilled or not?"  
"Why do you want me to leave some of it in there?"  
  
"You'll see." Jan put in some flames into the bottle. The bottle irrupted in flames and heat, as she threw it into the air and shot it quickly.  
  
"Was that your plan?"   
She was silent.  
  
"Are you listen....."  
  
The loud thunderous roar of a dragon filled the skies with uncertainty. The beat of its monstrous wings felt like a strong wind sweeping   
across the grass and bushes. It's reflecting scarlet scales shined in beauty as it landed gracefully onto the ground. Horns of death sprung   
upwards from the side of its head while many flaps of black hair triggered down from the head to the back. The rest of the way was nothing   
but sharp pointy spires leading all the way down to the tip of the barbed tail. It's kind-hearted topaz eyes look upon it's master. Jan greeted   
the dragon with a couple of soft dragon growls.  
  
" How did you do that?"  
" I never told you I had a pet.....didn't I."   
"I don't see why you didn't use it before in the first place."  
" I wasn't able to until I recently found out how to get him over here. Magma was abused when he was a dragonlet and that created his   
desire for alcoholic drinks." Jan was being nuzzled by the dragon. " I notice you had some and I used it to create a scent in the air to bring   
him over here"  
  
"But really...what you are trying to tell me is that this dragon...was given alcoholic drinks at a very young age?"  
  
"Unfortunately, yes. I found Magma lying almost dead from intoxication near a tavern and I had to restore him to health ." She got onto his   
back. "It will not take long to get to Champa by flight."  
  
"I never rode a dragon before." Picard tried getting onto the dragon's back.   
  
"All you do is hang on..think of how you use an Oradon." Jan gave the final command to Magma, "fly to the north, Magma!"  
  
The dragon let out a call and lifted it's body off the ground. Altitude was being gain as the dragon flapped its wings at a medium rate. The   
ocean sparkled like tiny stars in a dark open sky. The beaches descended into high rocky cliffs leading to sea rocks below. In no time,   
another the beach in which Picard's boat was docked could be seen from afar. The legendary flying ship, awaited.  
  
"Suppose we take along Magma to reach down into the lower depths of Gaia Falls?" Jan landed the dragon onto the ground as she spoke,   
"Your ship may not be able to handle the impact of the fall whether it has wings or not."  
  
"Better to be safe just in case we need a plan B." Picard took a glance at his beloved child. This ship was more than just a ship. He cared   
for it, looked out for its needs, as if it was living. This time he made sure the door was locked, and it was so he wouldn't have to deal with   
pests like last time. Picard went into the captains deck, and down to the bottom where he placed his black orb in its crevice. The mighty   
ship came back alive as it flowed with psynergy. He came back up to take control of the wheel.  
  
"Off to the east!" Picard got the ship adrift into the open waters. Slowly it gained speed and glided swiftly above the waves. Jan was not   
close by. She was exploring the ship a little more. She hadn't seen a ship so big before below deck. Magma curled up in a sleeping   
position near the back of the ship, taking a rest from the easy flight.  
  
Jan came outside. "How long will it take to get there?"  
"Approximately about 2 days."  
"I can feel the ship eating away at my psynergy, what if I run out?"  
"It's nothing to worry about." Picard turned the wheel to the northeast direction a little. " Psynergy is the fuel for my ship, and if we both run   
  
out, we can stop and rest until it has recovered."  
"All righty then, I'll stand watch guard for any kind of things that will attack." She climbed upon the dragon's head in the front of the ship.  
"You're going to fall down and get crushed if you sit there." Picard didn't appreciate the girl on the dragon's head.  
"I'll be able to hang on, I'm used to things like this."  
"Just don't come to me when you do fall off." He made the boat shake a little, making Jan unstable.  
"Hey! Don't you dare be shaking the boat on purpose to enhance the risks of me falling!" Jan took a hold of the dragons horns again.  
"Your no fun." Picard chuckled. "Just hang on tight and don't look down!"  
  
The sun pierced through the thin isolated clouds which lay still in the afternoon sky. An ocean breeze blew calmly to the west, making the   
air feel cold. Time to time, dolphins swam up to the boat and danced around it with curiosity. Then they would swim off to their destination,   
whatever that was. Magma would fly off from the boat for a time to catch himself a raw fish meal. Then it is back to sleeping and resting as   
usual. Gaia falls crept nearer and nearer as the ship moved along. Every now and then, Picard send out a djinn with a psynergy star to   
bring it over to Jan, who still was on the dragon's head. He had a few nearby to take so the boat's fuel would not run out.  
A/N: My writing habits are starting to come back to me. Expect a next chapter...well...I can't really predict when, but in 2 weeks. 


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